House Speaker Nancy Pelosi narrowly defeated a revolt by her fellow Democrats over tax cuts Wednesday as the House and Senate prepared to adjourn Thursday for a seven-week recess without voting to extend the Bush-era tax cuts.
More than three dozen House Democrats sided with Republicans in voting against adjournment, insisting that the House first take up the tax proposal. Already facing intense voter anger, Democrats were eager to show constituents that they were pushing to extend the tax cuts before hitting the campaign trail.
The Democratic uprising led to a 209-209 vote to adjourn, forcing Pelosi to rush to the chamber and cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of adjourning until Nov. 15.
“To avoid an embarrassing loss, she made an unusual vote to break the tie, assuring that Congress will leave town with tax hikes set to take effect next year across the board,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Democrats blamed the GOP, saying Republican lawmakers are blocking the tax cut bill because it does not extend the cuts to individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.
“House Republicans wanted to stay in session so they could once again hold middle-class tax cuts hostage for they can vote for tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, adding nearly $700 billion to the deficit,” Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said.
But dozens of Democrats in the House and several in the Senate favor extending the tax cuts to all income levels.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said even with full Democratic support the tax bill would stall in the upper chamber because Senate Democrats control only 59 votes, one shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome GOP opposition.
“If there is no supermajority, you can’t move legislation in the Senate,” Conrad said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the problem was within the Democratic caucus.
“They don’t have the votes,” McCain said.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee, said Democrats needed to adjourn Congress to block efforts by Republicans to try to turn back some of the reform bills that have already passed this year, including health care and financial reform.
“We’ve been very focused on getting the economy going again and now we’ve got to get out and take our case to the American people,” Van Hollen said. “We’ve got a situation where the Republicans at every turn have tried to turn back the clock to the failed policies of the past.”
Congress has not completed any of the spending measures needed to fund the government beginning on Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins. So lawmakers were preparing to pass a special resolution by Thursday that will keep the government running until November, when they return after the election for a “lame duck” session that will have to address the expiring Bush tax cuts and other unfinished business.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said that until then, members need to get home to explain what they have been doing in Washington.
“Washington is kind of like ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” she said. “We are pulling the curtain back behind the wizard when we go back to our districts.”
