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The House Democratic caucus voted today to reject the Obama-McConnell tax deal. From Sam Stein:
In a meeting on Thursday morning, the House Democratic caucus rejected the president’s proposed deal on the Bush tax cuts but did not fully submarine the possibility of its passage, multiple sources tell The Huffington Post.
Members, by voice vote, passed a motion to reject the deal as currently written. The motion had been put forward by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) and was seconded, informally, by Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).
Now, if our political parties functioned like most representative democracies and the House of Representatives was somehow a co-equal branch of the government, this would be a really big deal. The Speaker wouldn’t defy her party by bringing it to a vote, so this deal would need to be changed to win support of this co-equal chamber.
Of course, after watching almost the entire Democratic Party over the past two years allow Senate Republicans to turn Congress into essentially a unicameral legislature through their abuse of the filibuster, I know this is not the case. The House has become the body politic’s appendix, serving as nothing more than a vestigial chamber.
Over the past two years, House Democrats refused to exercise their constitutionally prescribed authority, so everyone is right to doubt this vote will actually mean anything.
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From long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away:
Come on, Nancy. You can do it.
Haha, more like the Federal Student Council who keep their eye on the ball about planning class trips, yearbook design and what not but do sometimes seem, to the outside observer, to actually be less powerful than the Principal.
Obama made the House eat the Senate’s serf care bill. He can make them eat anything.
Denny ran it like the Politburo. But nobody remembers that.
And Mr. Bipartisan is yelling at them like a dictator; ‘Take it or leave it.’ Funny, he waits to destroy the Dems to actually get tuff. He has put them in an impossible position, and himself: He wants to extend the tax cuts for two years, right into the middle of the ’12 election. Good grief. Can’t he count to two on his fingers?
This could be another bait and switch to give ”progressive” Dems cover
and then they fold too. I hope not.
Isn’t this a revenue bill that has to originate in the House? If only we had a majority…
Most Americans don’t even know what the media and pols are talking about when they say ‘cut the payroll tax’. Most people’s eyes just light up and they agree. If they are told it’s defunding SocSec the story might change.
can someone unpack that a little? what is that a reference to? do you mean that they should have been rejecting bills in conference that turned to crap on their way through the Senate?