But most Republicans were spineless twits…. as expected (vote tally at bottom).
“Mark my word, you’ll raise tax rates and you feel good because you went out there and you got those rich people. You said you were. You campaigned against rich people. And you got enough envy whipped up in the country. And you’re going to stick it to those rich people. But guess what? You may not get any more revenue. You may not get anymore economic growth. But you can say, “I stuck it to the rich people.””
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida says the Senate’s fiscal-cliff compromise, which passed the upper chamber early Tuesday, was a political mistake.
“I just couldn’t vote for it,” Rubio told reporters. “I ran, just two years ago, on the idea that I wanted to be part of solving the long-term problems this country faces. Time and again, we’re given choices here that don’t involve that.”
“The real fiscal cliff is still there,” he said. “We’ll be back here again. In March, we’ll have a showdown like this all over again.” (link)
That was all President Obama wanted…. Get a bill passed in the Senate, and even if it does not pass the house, he can blame Republicans for being “extremist and obstructionist”…. That was/is the goal all along.
It was not about solving problems, helping the nation, fixing a debt and deficit issue, or tackling a budget challenge; It never was about those things….. From The White House
“At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy,” the statement says. “For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue.
“This means millionaires and billionaires will pay their fair share to reduce the deficit through a combination of permanent tax rate increases and reduced tax benefits.”
The White House said it achieved 85 percent of what it wanted on taxes, locking in $620 billion in revenue from wealthier Americans over 10 years. The statement, entitled “The Tax Agreement: A Victory for Middle-Class Families & the Economy” and issued less than an hour before Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to meet with House Democrats on the Hill, includes a list of talking points covering everything from capital gains (hiked to 20 percent) to the extension of unemployment benefits and tax credits for renewable energy.
So, as expected, and with victory in hand, President Obama heads to the golf course…
So the new speaker choice has been pared down to 8 possible candidates.
Rand Paul would seem like a natural choice. If he ever has any questions about the right thing to do he can just ask Daddy.
Exactly. and now you know why I have always thought that Rubio is a man of great character
Ron Johnson (WI) and Pat Toomey (PA) are the biggest disappointments to me…
What about those creeps from the red fly-over redoubt states–talkin real big they were…
Also 2 R (Kirk/Il & DeMint/SC) & 1D (Lautenberg/NJ) did not vote.
Did Kirk return to work yet? He’s been out since his stroke.
I found this dated 12/31/12
CHICAGO — Nearly a year after a stroke left him barely able to move the left side of his body, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk is expected to climb the 45 steps to the Senate’s front door this week
So I don’t believe Kirk was available to vote.
I’ve had family members who’ve had strokes, so I have compassion. But I also am not completely impressed that apparently whatever it was he was elected to do?….shoot, turns out it apparently didn’t have to be done after all. He has been able to do it for nearly a year and apparently it didn’t matter. Why am I not surprised.
Aren’t these supposed to start in the House?
From Brit Hume on twitter….
“..The Senate cliff bill is a massive amendment to a House-passed bill, thus complying with Const. prov. that House must originate tax bills.”
So they’re doing the same shenanigans that they did with Obamacare.
Hopefully the House won’t “Deem” this one passed.
It’s exactly what they did with obamacare.
The press had created such a horror story about ‘going over the cliff’, egged on byu special interest groups like the American Dairy Council that I’m betting most Senators just wanted to get some breathing space and some drinking time in on the Eve before ‘last call’. I was interested in how they managed the Estate Tax, especially since the Democrats look at it as a potential revenue source as we goodies-heavy Boomer start that short road to compost. I’m getting suspicious that, unable to pass legislation that allows them to pillage estates outright they’re pushing us into trusts that they’ll work their confiscatory magic on at a later date. Bottom line is the Democrats have that fulminating mass of non-productive consumer-voters and a huge national deficit, both of which they have to keep feeding. They can sneak in consumer taxes but that won’t fill the hole – as George Carlin would say, “They need our sh*t!”.
Yup. Government doesn’t have any money. That’s why they keep taking ours.
And check out this chart from Zero Hedge:
Putting America’s Tax Hike In Perspective
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-01/putting-americas-tax-hike-perspective
Perfect! This is good but I fear you could show this to an O-bot and they STILL would not understand!
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the job creators are creating jobs in China. punish those job creators. we need a new party, The Protectionist Party on what this country was founded on. Alexander Hamilton knows the Constitution, Rand Paul doesn’t understand what the economic principles this country was founded on. the scum twists Article 1 Section 8. he doesn’t understand what Alexander Hamilton stood for when he mentioned regulating commerce with other nations. I’m not a fan of either the Dems, the Repubs, or these Constitutional twisting Libertarians.
we need another candidate like Ross Perot.
Like that helped the country a whole lot. Ross Perot gave us Clinton. No Thank You!
Until such time as obozo makes a budget, no compromises should be made by congress. By law, they’re not supposed to operate without a budget.
…And why did Mr. Fiscal Responsibility (Barry/Barrack) just give everyone in the Fed a payraise?
We are no longer a representative Republic operating under the authority of law and have not been for some time now. obama gave everyone a raise because he wanted to.
Unfortunately, it is just that simple–both statements are true.
Those Senators up for reelection in 2014 who abandoned the Constitution need to be voted out
Yeah, like the losers in the house got voted out in 2010. That really changed things. (Sorry, I refuse to believe that those who say they will fight for the Constitution [in order to get elected] will actually do it once they cross the Potomoc)
Heartbreaking summary here:
http://news.yahoo.com/bitter-end-house-republican-freshmen-165624745–politics.html
One of our mistakes was entering into sequestration. We gave a $1.2 trillion debt ceiling increase for $1.2 trillion in cuts, and we aren’t even getting those cuts.”
You are one of kind, Sundance.
“This is exactly what we came to change, problems like this… we came here to make big bold changes, and at the end of the day, for whatever reason, we frittered away most of the energy that sent us to here in 2010.”
Figured that allllll by himself, did he?
Give that one a shiny sticker.
Just got off work sitting in a Chinese restaurant and all they have on is CNN. I believe I started the Chinese owner when I boo Wolf Blitzer
I would imagine you did!!! Good grief!
The other alternative was keeping the conditions of the fiscal cliff, which is higher taxes on everybody.
Add that to the fact we already have higher taxes because the Republicans are all for eliminating the payroll tax cuts, so we go back up to 6.2%.
Did you really want the middle class to get nailed with higher taxes twice?
I understand the vote. I don’t like it. Until we have a Speaker with a back bone, this was their only choice. I want Ryan as the next Speaker but was disappointed that he voted yes. I still think he can do the job. Especially, since he can’t stand Obama, Biden, Pelosi, or Reid. I think the real fight will be the debt ceiling. I feel like it was like ancient Rome…commit suicide or we kill you anyway.
I love how the buggers think they have “locked in ” 620 Billion in revenues.
Just like california right? they raised taxes on the rich and spent all the money they were going to collect with the new taxes. Only ooops… Rich people didnt want to pay the new taxes, so they worked less. Thier revenue went down what? 15%?
All that has been locked in by this bill is a LOSS of 620 billion dollars in economic growth and it wont be over the next 10 years. Its gonna hit right NOW.