Nancy Pelosi

Pelosi Puts The Kibosh On GOP Payroll Tax Cut Strategy

Brian Beutler | December 2, 2011, 5:15PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says Republicans can forget about using the looming expiration of a year-long payroll tax holiday for workers to squeeze a host of unrelated conservative priorities through Congress, and projected confidently that her party has the GOP cornered on the issue.

In an exclusive interview Friday with TPM, Pelosi sketched out the Democrats' strategy for renewing (and possibly expanding) the payroll tax cut, which most economists say would promote job creation next year -- when persistent unemployment will be at the center of the election debate.

"It is really a stalling tactic," Pelosi said of recent reports that Republicans want to use the lapsing tax cut as leverage to pass key GOP priorities, including construction of a major oil pipeline from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico, and rolling back Obama's health care law. "It's unworthy of the needs of the American people for them to go all around the mulberry bush with this stuff. If they want to do something for the American people -- to remove the uncertainty as to whether these payroll tax cuts will be extended, whether [unemployment insurance] will be extended ... let's just get about doing it."

"They know that this stuff isn't going to fly, that the President's not going to sign it -- so why are they doing this," Pelosi says. "It's about votes at the end of the day, and some of their people are never going to vote for anything, so they're going to need our votes, we're going to have to work together, and they're going to need the President's signature -- and they're going to need it to pass the Senate."

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American Jobs Act

White House: How Jobs Plan Is Paid for Is A Sideshow

Susan Crabtree | October 5, 2011, 3:35PM

President Barack Obama

The White House is brushing off all the fuss over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plans to scrap President Obama's suggested offsets for the Jobs Act before bringing it to the floor for a vote next week.

"The pay-fors are incidental, if you will," Carney told reporters at a Wednesday briefing. "The meat of this proposal is putting teachers back to work...incentivizing small businesses to hire more workers...and that will be voted on. How you pay for it has always been open to debate."

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LinkdIn

Rich Silicon Valley Man Begs Obama To Raise His Taxes, Please (VIDEO)

Susan Crabtree | September 26, 2011, 3:25PM

UPDATE - 3:30 p.m. Eastern: White House reporters have identified the man as Doug Edwards, former director of communications and marketing at Google. Here's his Twitter profile.

An unidentified man who made a killing in Silicon Valley implored President Obama to "please raise my taxes" at a LinkedIn Townhall event Monday.

"Mr. President. I don't have a job, but that is because I have been lucky enough to live in Silicon Valley for a while and work for a small startup company down the street who did quite well," he said. "So, I am unemployed by choice. My question is -- would you please raise my taxes?"

The question drew stunned laughter and then applause from the small audience.

"I would like very much to have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell grants and infrastructure and jobs training programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am," he said.

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Barack Obama

Centrists Continue To Parse The President's Tax Plan

Susan Crabtree | September 21, 2011, 2:42PM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Several centrist Democratic Senators have spent the last week wringing their hands a bit over President Obama's deficit reduction plan and its dependence on increasing taxes on the wealthy and closing corporate loopholes.

Some approve of shutting down the corporate subsidies, while others support hiking taxes for the rich, but none reached by TPM embraced the entire package.

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Jack Lew

White House: Tax Hikes For The Wealthy Will Largely Pay For Jobs Bill

Susan Crabtree | September 12, 2011, 2:30PM

Jack Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew on Monday outlined plans to pay for President Obama's new jobs bill largely by increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans and closing tax loopholes for businesses.

Most of the new funds, Lew said, would be attained by limiting itemized deductions for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000, a plan President Obama has tried to push since his campaign days. Taking these steps would raise roughly $400 billion over 10 years, Lew said.

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2012

Obama: Hey, Republicans Are Blocking My Tax Break!

Thomas Lane | August 15, 2011, 3:53PM

President Barack Obama (D)

Congress may be out, but that doesn't mean President Obama can't score some political points from its inertia.

He's been doing that since the end of June, repeating at virtually each public appearance a mantra-like list of actions that Congress could do "right now" to help the economy.

The President was at it again Monday, speaking to an audience in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Trade deals, rebuilding projects, red-tape slashing... President Obama said these were all things Congress could tackle "right now," or at the very least once it's back in session.

One item he included in that list is shaping up to be a key part of the White House's strategy in the coming months: the payroll tax holiday.

Contrary to conservative smears against the President as a tax-raising liberal, this is a tax break he is battling to keep in the face of Republican opposition.

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AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO Slams 'Gang of Six' Proposal For 'Goring' The Poor

Susan Crabtree | July 20, 2011, 3:09PM

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka doesn't share President Obama's enthusiasm for the so-called balanced approach to deficit reduction set forth in the much ballyhooed bipartisan 'Gang of Six' proposal. In fact, he's dead-set against it.

Despite all the talk of tough choices and shared sacrifice and taking on sacred cows during difficult economic times, Trumka says the Gang of Six proposal appears to balance the budget on the backs of middle-class workers and the poor.

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Debt Ceiling

Top Economist: Even Brief Default Will Cause New Recession And Blow Recovery 'Out Of The Water'

Brian Beutler | June 28, 2011, 11:39AM

Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi

How big are the stakes on Capitol Hill right now? According to one of the most influential economists in federal policy making, the next four weeks will make the difference between a slow glide toward economic recovery, and a severe tumble into a new recession.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: More Than Just Forms: Tax Day Tea Party-Style]

Moody's chief economist, and former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi is forecasting GDP growth of 4 percent by the end of the year and into next. But in response to a question from TPM, he told reporters at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Christian Science Monitor that his forecast would be "blown out of the water," if Congress fails to "reasonably gracefully" raise the national borrowing limit.

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Jon Kyl

McConnell, Kyl: Obama Must Break Silence On Tax Increases

Brian Beutler | June 23, 2011, 12:45PM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

In a joint statement, and in the midst of major turbulence in bipartisan debt negotiations, the top two Republicans in the Senate say President Obama needs to speak publicly about his insistence that new tax revenue and job promotion measures be included in any deal to increase the debt limit.

"The White House and Democrats are insisting on job-killing tax hikes and new spending," says a joint statement by Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). "That proposal won't address our fiscal crisis, our jobs crisis, or protect and reform entitlements. And a bill with new spending and higher taxes would fail with bipartisan opposition - as it should. President Obama needs to decide between his goal of higher taxes, or a bipartisan plan to address our deficit. He can't have both. But we need to hear from him."

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Democrats

Democrats Explicitly Call Out GOP For Sabotaging The Economic Recovery

Brian Beutler | June 22, 2011, 12:36PM

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL)

They've made it explicit. Democrats are accusing Republicans of trying to sabotage the recovery -- or at least stall it -- by blocking all short-term measures to boost the economy, even ones they previously supported.

In a Capitol press conference Wednesday, the Senate's top Democrats argued that Republicans don't want to pass measures like a temporary payroll tax holiday for employers because they'll improve President Obama's re-election chances.

"Our Republican colleagues in the House and Senate are driven by putting one man out of work: President Obama," said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL).

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Harry Reid

With Economy Faltering, Dems Seize On GOP About-Face On Payroll Tax Cuts For Businesses

Brian Beutler | June 22, 2011, 5:45AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Democrats are increasingly concerned that Republicans are setting them up to endorse large spending cuts in a deal to raise the national debt limit without giving ground on anything -- even GOP-friendly policy measures like tax cuts for business owners -- to stimulate the economy in the near-term.

The concern arises as numerous top Republicans react coldly to the prospect of temporarily reducing the payroll tax burden on employers and employees -- to juice the economy before federal spending draws down in the years ahead.

Traditionally, and particularly in tough economic times, this and a handful of other stimulative policies have enjoyed bipartisan support. But with the outcome of the 2012 election likely to hinge on the nation's economic trajectory, the GOP is mysteriously rethinking those positions. And Democrats are starting to note of the suspicious timing.

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Bill Gross

PIMCO Founder To Deficit-Obsessed Congress: Get Back To Reality

Brian Beutler | June 21, 2011, 11:00AM

One of the most influential investors in the world of finance has a message for lawmakers -- particularly conservative lawmakers -- on Capitol Hill: rejoin the real world.

In a prospectus for clients, Bill Gross, a co-founder of investment management giant PIMCO, says members' of Congress incessant focus on deficit -- and in particular, the manner in which they obsess about deficits -- is foolhardy, and a recipe for disaster. What the country needs, Gross said, is real stimulus now, and a measured return toward fiscal balance in the years ahead.

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Barack Obama

Top Republicans Pour Cold Water On Obama's Last-Ditch Stimulus Plan

Brian Beutler | June 15, 2011, 3:04PM

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

Two leading Republicans say they do not support President Obama's plan to broaden, deepen, and extend a payroll tax cut to stimulate the economy in the short-term.

In a briefing with reporters in the Capitol Tuesday, the House and Senate GOP conference chairs said they're through with short-term stimulus measures, even if they take the form of tax cuts.

"Well they've tried this once, and it hasn't seemed to be working," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX).

His Senate counterpart, Lamar Alexander (R-TN) echoed this view.

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Tax Breaks

Dems See Opening To Push GOP On Taxes After Ethanol Subsidies Vote

Benjy Sarlin | June 15, 2011, 3:01PM

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tom Coburn (R-OK)

Looking to exploit a rare rift between Republicans and anti-tax groups, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) renewed calls on Tuesday to include revenue increases in any deficit deal.

Some 34 Senate Republicans voted for an amendment ending ethanol subsidies on Tuesday, despite warnings from anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist that dropping tax credits counted as a tax hike. The divide over the issue is complicated and hinges on regional factors in both parties, but Democrats largely voted against the unsuccessful amendment due to stated objections to the procedure by which it was brought up.

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Barack Obama

MAYBE! Dems, Republicans Non-Committal On Stimulus In Debt Limit Deal

Brian Beutler | June 15, 2011, 10:00AM

President Barack Obama meets with Republican and Democratic leaders

President Obama's calling for it, so is his one-time top economic adviser. With unemployment stuck at around 9 percent, the administration is desperate for more economic stimulus, and the only way they think they can get it is by further cutting payroll taxes. They want to include those cuts in a bipartisan deal to raise the national debt limit.

But thus far, top Democrats and Republicans are making no promises.

"I think this is something we should take a look at," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) at a Capitol press conference Tuesday. "We've analyzed this, we've considered this -- we, the Democratic caucus has considered this -- we have not arrived at a conclusion so I'm glad that this is an issue they're talking about."

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Doug Elmendorf

CBO Director On The Economy: 'Great Deal Of Pain' Ahead

Brian Beutler | June 14, 2011, 11:56AM

CBO director Doug Elmendorf offered reporters a sneak preview of his agency's forthcoming economic forecast Tuesday, at a breakfast roundtable hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. It's bad news for most Americans -- and bad political news for President Obama.

"A great deal of the pain of this downturn lies in front of us still," Elmendorf said.

At the beginning of the year, CBO put the U.S. on a five-year path of modest growth, over which time they predicted the unemployment rate would crawl down toward five percent. Elmendorf sees nothing on the horizon to speed that up.

"At this point I don't expect large changes to that forecast," he said.

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Oil Subsidies

Republicans Filibuster Bill To Repeal Oil Subsidies

Brian Beutler | May 17, 2011, 7:16PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Schumer (D-NY)

As expected, a Democratic bill that would have stripped big oil companies of multi-billion annual tax subsidies failed to overcome a Republican filibuster Tuesday evening. The heavily partisan 52-48 vote fell well short of the 60 required to achieve cloture. Three Democrats -- Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Ben Nelson (D-NE) -- voted with Republicans to maintain the subsidies. Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted with the Democrats.

Democrats have turned oil subsidies into a major issue as Congress looks at ways to tame high deficits and the national debt. They've been fueled in their efforts by soaring gas prices and extraordinary industry profits. And party leaders have vowed to include the tax breaks in any grand fiscal bargain tied to raising the debt limit.

But this effort was all about politics. Democrats want to highlight the GOP alignment with oil companies this election season and Tuesday's vote will help them do that. But if it had passed it would have run smack into a pretty big problem -- because, er, it was unconstitutional.

Oil

GOP Closes Ranks Around Continuing Oil Subsidies

Brian Beutler | May 17, 2011, 1:15PM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Republicans senators who in the past have supported ending tax subsidies to big oil companies are prepared to vote Tuesday night with their party leadership to keep those subsidies in place.

"I'm going to vote with my party," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during a Senate vote Tuesday afternoon. "I just think oil subsidies have to be part of a bigger package. If you had expanded drilling, I would consider reducing the subsidies or eliminating them if you got more drilling as part of the package.

"I'm leaning against it because it looks like it's political," said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL).

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Gas Prices

Senate Dems and Oil Execs Face Off Over Tax Breaks

Susan Crabtree | May 12, 2011, 12:15PM

Oil executives testify at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

Executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies received a harsh public flogging for near-record gas prices coupled with high profits for the first quarter of the year at a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday.

Democrats excoriated the executives for rejecting calls to end tax breaks for the industry when they stand to make record profits and gas prices are reaching an all-time high at the pump.

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Medicare

Congress Returns From Recess -- To Decide The Future Of The Country

Brian Beutler | May 4, 2011, 9:37AM

The killing of Osama bin Laden put domestic politics on the back burner for members of Congress, who returned to Washington on Monday after a two week recess. But only briefly. Already Republicans are eager to change the topic, and both parties are returning to the enormous business at hand.

Democrats arrived on Capitol Hill Monday having walked deep into enemy territory. A series of missteps, driven by divisions within their party, have helped Republicans move the center of the legislative debate on Capitol Hill far to the right. Now Dems are trying to hold the line as the GOP advances on a decades-long goal of eroding the social safety net.

Over the past several months, Democrats have ratified two key GOP positions: first that reducing the deficit should be the government's top priority; and second, that the best -- if not the only -- way to do this is by slashing spending. That's a formula for eviscerating necessary programs, particularly the big entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Democrats are belatedly waking up to this. They spent the recess attacking Republicans for voting to phase out Medicare, and trying to box them into ending tax loopholes that serve as corporate welfare for oil companies. But these peripheral political fights are actually stage-setters for the main event.

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Debt

Reid: No Lines In The Sand From Democrats On Increasing Debt Limit

Brian Beutler | April 27, 2011, 3:39PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Unlike his Republican counterparts, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) says he'll make no ironclad demands in negotiations over raising the national debt limit. But he hinted that he favors an approach that's at odds with Republican goals, and the stated goals of members of his own party.

"We're not going to be drawing any lines in the sand," he told reporters on a conference call Wednesday afternoon.

That suggests Dems have given up on the idea that they can force Republicans to raise the debt limit without attached measures aimed at reducing deficits, particularly by cutting spending. Reid says Congress will be able to mix and match ideas from a number of floating plans, including the House GOP budget, a forthcoming budget authored by Senate Budget Committee Kent Conrad, the bipartisan Gang of Six's soon-to-be released deficit reduction plan, and the fiscal framework President Obama outlined in his deficit speech earlier this month.

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Gas Prices

Obama's Targets GOP Divisions On Oil Subsidies

Susan Crabtree | April 26, 2011, 4:46PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and other members of the GOP leadership

President Obama knows all too well what it's like to feel the wrath of rankling his base by embracing compromise with Republicans on one of their ideological positions. That's why he didn't hesitate when House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) appeared to open the door -- just a crack -- to the idea of ending payments to oil companies in an interview with ABC News released Monday afternoon.

Boehner's office spent all day dialing back the bosses' comments.

"We have pointed out for years that raising costs for energy producers will raise costs for consumers," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told TPM. "And we want to 'take a look' at anything that lowers gas prices - but the President's proposal won't do that."

But the damage was already done and the rest of the GOP leadership team was forced to quickly putty over any cracks appearing on the surface -- real or perceived -- while Obama did his best to exploit any divisions.

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Budget

First Dem Attack Ad Targets Candidate Who Claimed To Support GOP Budget (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | April 26, 2011, 10:13AM

Kathy Hochul

A few Democrats might be vulnerable to attack ads based on their recent budget votes. But just about every Republican is stuck -- even one who isn't in Congress.

"Jane Corwin said she would vote for the 2012 Republican budget that would essentially end Medicare. Seniors would have to pay $6,400 more for the same coverage," the below ad says. "But the plan Jane Corwin supports would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans."

Corwin is running against Kathy Hochul in the NY-26 special election to fill the seat vacated by former congressman and Craigslist philanderer Chris Lee. It's the first GOP budget ad paid for by a Democrat this cycle. The election's less than a month away, and will now be a barometer for the effectiveness of this line of attack

NRCC

NRCC Learns How To Attack Dems Over The Budget (AUDIO)

Brian Beutler | April 26, 2011, 9:27AM

Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)

Just before the House adjourned, Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) voted against the Congressional Black Caucus budget, the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget, the House Democratic budget, the Republican Study Committee Budget, and the House GOP Budget -- the only one of the five options on the table that passed.

That gives Republicans an opening to attack him for refusing to cut spending without mentioning that their own budget does extremely unpopular things -- like reducing deficits over the course of decades by unloading health care costs on to seniors.

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Social Security

Parsing The Game Of Six: Will They Try To Cut Social Security Benefits?

Brian Beutler | April 21, 2011, 1:17PM

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

The bipartisan group of six senators privately drafting a debt and deficit reduction plan have been unusually tight-lipped about their negotiations. That's probably necessary internally if the group's goal is to come to an agreement. But it's led to intense speculation about what's on the table, what shape their policy options are taking, and whether progressives will get a raw deal.

Of the six -- Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mark Warner (D-VA), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Mike Crapo (R-ID) -- only Durbin could be fairly described as a progressive. So the race is on to figure out where his bright lines are, and to what, if any, extent he's willing to walk away if the final agreement completely undermines progressive interests. But while his public statements in recent weeks don't lay out exactly what those bright lines are, he's tipped his hand in two important ways.

One big tell was his official public response to the House Republican budget, which doesn't meaningfully touch Social Security but basically obliterates Medicare and Medicaid, while not raising any new revenue, and lowering taxes on wealthy Americans.

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BP

BP To Cut Tax Bill By $13B But Won't Say What It's Paying IRS For 2010

Susan Crabtree | April 20, 2011, 4:54PM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

BP plans to cut its overall tax bill by nearly $13 billion by writing off costs related to last year's mammoth oil spill as the Gulf Coast continues to grapple with the devastating environmental and economic costs of the disaster one year later.

The international oil giant suffered a $40.9 billion loss as a result of the oil spill, making its net losses for 2010 a total of $4.8 billion (BP had $36.1 billion in profits before factoring in the spill), according to its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and analysis by several tax experts consulted by TPM.

Under U.S. corporate law, companies can take credits on up to 35 percent of their losses. In this case, that means U.S. taxpayers are indirectly subsidizing at least part of cleanup cost and the $20 billion fund BP created to compensate people, fisherman and businesses along the Gulf Coast hurt by the spill.

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Medicare

New Dem PAC Launches Attack Ads Against GOPers Who Voted To End Medicare (AUDIO)

Brian Beutler | April 20, 2011, 11:16AM

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI)

A new political action committee dedicated to ending the Republican majority in the House unveiled its first major ad buy Wednesday -- attacking Republicans for voting to end Medicare while giving wealthy Americans a tax cut.

"House Republicans are breaking the trust our country has with its seniors by ending Medicare as we know it, making them pay more for prescriptions drugs, and by forcing them to turn to the private health insurance market," said Alixandria Lapp, Executive Director of House Majority PAC, in a statement. "House Republicans have no problem asking seniors, middle class families and veterans to make sacrifices, yet refuse to do the same for big corporations and millionaires who would receive trillions in new tax breaks. We will hold House Republicans accountable for their backwards priorities."

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Barack Obama

Obama: My Plan Will Reduce Deficit By $4 Trillion While Sustaining American Values

Susan Crabtree | April 13, 2011, 3:39PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama outlined his plan to cut $4 trillion from the deficit over the course of the next 12 years through a combination of targeted spending cuts and tax increases that would allow the nation to balance its books and retain its "generous and compassionate" values.

In a 43-minute speech at George Washington University Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Obama said Republicans and Democrats both share the goal of getting the country's fiscal house in order but have starkly different approaches to doing so, arguing that his is more balanced by spreading sacrifices across the board and including tax increases for the wealthiest Americans.

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Paul Ryan

White House: Ryan Plan Doesn't Pass The Fairness Test

Susan Crabtree | April 5, 2011, 5:48PM

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

The White House rejected Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) "Path to Prosperity" budget blueprint for fiscal 2012 Tuesday, arguing that it unfairly guarantees the prosperity of wealthy millionaires while overburdening seniors and the poor.

While President Obama is committed to dramatically reducing the country's long-term deficit, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, Ryan's plan is exactly the wrong approach.

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Health Care

GOP Stumbles Explaining Double Standard On Tax Cuts

Brian Beutler and Benjy Sarlin | March 30, 2011, 9:14AM

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

Democrats and Republicans in Congress are having a difficult time figuring out how to accomplish a common, and politically urgent goal. Specifically, they both agree that a provision in the health care law that steps up enforcement of business' tax reporting requirements has to go. It's too burdensome, they all agree.

Set aside whether they're right or not, the reason they're having a hard time getting it done is that they disagree about how to offset the impact on the deficit. Reducing the tax burden on businesses means reducing the amount of money the Treasury collects, and thus a big hole in the budget.

But wait! Don't Republicans all believe that tax cuts (or 'tax relief,' as they prefer) don't need to be offset with spending cuts or tax hikes elsewhere in the budget? Yes indeed they do. Just not in this case, where it pertains to the health care law -- and they're tying themselves up in knots trying to square their conflicting views.

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Budget

GOP Exempts Deficit Busting Policies From New Budget Rules

Brian Beutler | January 4, 2011, 10:27AM

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

Republicans' deficit reduction platform, which may have helped catapult them into the majority, is about to run headlong into a hard reality: Many of their key policy goals will increase the deficit dramatically.

To get around this fact, they've included measures in their new rules package to exempt some of their biggest legislative priorities from deficit consideration. Among the exceptions, which the House is likely to consider in the 112th Congress, are the health care repeal bill (scheduled for a vote a week from Wednesday), the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, an AMT patch, extending the estate tax, and more.

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2010 elections

Top Five Political Catch Phrases Of 2010

Brian Beutler | December 29, 2010, 12:45PM

Sarah Palin

A big part of politics is coming up with catchy slogans and phrases so that voters draw conclusions that help your party. They run the gamut from Barack Obama's "Yes we can!" to Sarah Palin's "death panels."

The flipside of that is that you have to avoid saddling yourself with unflattering slogans and catch phrases. A bad gaffe will stick to a politician like flypaper -- sometimes for years. These buzzwords and catchphrases bubble up into the political discourse all the time. Most of them dissipate harmlessly, but a few attach themselves to their subjects like stink on, well, chickencrap.

Here's our list of the top five political catch phrases of 2010 -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

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Tax Cuts

New GOP House Rules Pave The Way For More Tax Cuts, Deficits

Brian Beutler | December 28, 2010, 10:36AM

House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

In 2007, just weeks after Republicans lost control of the House and Senate and six years after the first passel of Bush tax cuts were signed into law, Democrats made a key change to the budget rules to prevent that episode from repeating itself.

Republicans had used the budget reconciliation process -- immune from a filibuster -- to pass the cuts and explode the deficit: two things the reconciliation process was never meant to allow. To get away with it, Republicans were forced to include a 10-year sunset in package -- planting the seeds for the tax cut fight we just saw on Capitol Hill. After Dems wrested control of Congress, they banned the reconciliation loopholes used by the GOP altogether.

But as they return to power in the House of Representatives, Republicans are taking steps to unravel those changes.

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Barack Obama

Top 5 Lame Duck Winners For 2010

Brian Beutler | December 24, 2010, 8:25AM

President Barack Obama

Republicans attacked it as a perversion of democracy, and used it as an excuse to continue to vote against Dem priorities. Democrats recognized it as their last chance to accomplish much of anything for the next two years. People in the media mistook it for a Barack Obama renaissance.

Certainly Democrats accomplished more than most people expected they would these last several weeks. But between the victories and the compromises and the defeats, it's hard to keep track of who came out on top.

Here's a list of the lame duck's big winners to help you sort it all out.

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Tax Cuts

House Passes Tax Cut Plan, Obama To Sign

Brian Beutler | December 16, 2010, 11:05PM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

After a bumpy ride, and a brief, unexpected revolt by rank and file Democrats, the House passed President Obama's tax plan late Thursday night by a vote of 277 to 148. The vast majority of the 'no' votes were cast by Democrats.

Because the package that passed the House is identical to the version that passed the Senate earlier this week, the bill will head directly to the White House for Obama's signature.

House Democratic leaders had planned to tie a bow around the Obama tax cuts early this afternoon. But a bloc of angry progressives scuttled that plan. In a move that surprised aides and members, they temporarily derailed a key procedural measure required to pass the bill. The tactic was meant to register their disapproval with the legislation, and the terms of the debate, both of which were designed without their input.

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Chaka Fattah

Kabuki Tax Revolt: Dems Put The Brakes On The Obama Tax Plan

Brian Beutler | December 16, 2010, 3:34PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama

House progressives are still prepared for President Obama's tax cut compromise to pass unamended. But they temporarily derailed that train this afternoon to be heard publicly on just how bad they think the package is.

"If we're going to lose, let's lose with a strong message," Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) -- chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus -- told me and another reporter in the Speaker's Lobby this afternoon.

Earlier today, he and other progressives interrupted the tax plan's glide path by blocking a key procedural measure -- a stalling tactic they hope to leverage into being given a chance to vote on substantial changes to the bill. All efforts to amend the legislation are expected to fail. But rank and file Dems are angry that during the brief floor debate over the cuts they were given only one shot at a relatively narrow, symbolic amendment to raise the estate tax.

As long as they're being set up to fail, progressives want that measure to include a whole range of changes to the bill.

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Tax Cuts

House To Vote On Tax Plan Today

Brian Beutler | December 16, 2010, 11:39AM

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

This afternoon, the House of Representatives will vote on -- and likely pass -- the White House's tax cut plan. The legislation, which already passed the Senate, will likely go straight to President Obama's desk, and here's why:

The House's influential rules committee has OK'd a vote on one key amendment -- to stiffen the plan's estate tax provision. The overwhelming majority of Democrats support lowering the threshold, and raising the rate of the estate tax in the plan -- in fact the House has passed estate tax legislation that does just that.

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Social Security

Top Democrat Identifies Another Threat To Social Security In Obama Tax Plan

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2010, 8:45AM

Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)

An outspoken and respected House liberal is concerned that President Obama's tax cut plan will pose more than one threat to Social Security.

Progressive advocates, and a wide swath of the Democratic party, oppose Obama's call for a partial employee payroll tax holiday. Not because they don't want workers to have extra cash in their pocket, but because they worry that a supposedly temporary payroll tax rate will become the new normal and jeopardize Social Security in the long run. Next year, they worry, Republicans will characterize allowing the holiday to lapse as a "tax hike" on workers, and Dems will be cowed into extending it.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) shares that fear. But even if things don't shake out that way, he says, treating the funding mechanism for Social Security as a variable that can be tweaked to fund stimulus or reduce deficits will erode Social Security's status as the third rail of American politics, and leave it vulnerable to future attacks from the right.

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Bush Tax Cuts

House Dems Prepare To Fold On Obama Tax Cut Deal

Brian Beutler | December 14, 2010, 10:02PM

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer with other House Democrats

House Democrats are coming to terms with the fact that a tax cut compromise filled with provisions they despise will pass and be signed into law. On Tuesday night they vented their frustrations to their harried leadership in a private caucus meeting, but emerged acknowledging that they've been boxed effectively in by the White House and GOP.

Tomorrow, after the Senate passes the plan President Obama negotiated with Congressional Republicans, Democratic leaders in the House will present their members with an end game. That endgame may involve passing the legislation word for word. Leaders may allow votes on amendments to the Senate-passed bill, and may even allow some minor tweaks to the package. But as far as dramatically tweaking its key provisions -- particularly the estate tax -- or otherwise endangering the deal, members predict leadership will allow those efforts to fail.

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Barack Obama

2008 Obama Critic Enjoys Renewed Prominence After Tax Cut Cave (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | December 10, 2010, 10:57AM

President Barack Obama

In the wake of President Obama's capitulation to the GOP on tax cuts, one of his fiercest critics during the 2008 Democratic primary is getting a second look.

In an Ohio speech at a Hillary Clinton event two years ago, Tom Buffenbarger of the International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stopped just short of calling Obama a wimp and a fraud.

"'Hope'? 'Change'? 'Yes We Can'? Give me a break! I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter."

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