Boehner: “A Vote to Adjourn is a Vote to Raise Taxes;” Update: Adjourned
Scroll for updates…
GOP turns up the heat on panicked Dems over tax hikes:
Appearing at the weekly Republican leadership press conference, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) decried Democratic Leaders’ intent to adjourn for the fall without allowing an up-or-down vote to stop all of the tax increases set to take effect on January 1. Boehner issued the following statement:
“A vote to adjourn this Congress without an up-or-down vote to stop all the tax hikes is a vote to raise taxes and destroy more jobs. American families and small businesses deserve better. This Congress has a chance to help end uncertainty for families and small businesses by stopping all the tax hikes set to take effect on January 1. If Democratic Leaders leave town without stopping all of the tax hikes, they are turning their backs on the American people.
Read: 47 Democrats Side With GOP on Some Tax Cuts
The Hill says Boehner is resisting a discharge petition drive. What say you?
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Wednesday blasted Democratic leaders for blocking a vote extending all the Bush-era tax cuts, but appeared resistant to using a procedural maneuver called a “discharge petition” to force a vote on the issue.
“A discharge petition has to sit around for 30 legislative days and I don’t think the American people want to wait that long,” he told reporters.
A discharge petition with at least 218 member signatures forces a floor vote on a bill without it going through regular order. The tactic can be used when a majority of House members want to pass a particular initiative that is being blocked by leaders.
Over 40 House Democrats have already called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to stop tax hikes from occurring next year and Boehner said a majority of members in his chamber support extending all the Bush tax cuts.
***
Update: Via The Hill:
House Democrats on Wednesday barely won a 210-209 vote to adjourn the House without extending the Bush tax cuts.
Thirty-nine House Democrats voted against adjournment after Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) urged opposition to the motion in a floor speech that said it would be irresponsible for Congress to leave without providing certainty on the tax issue. Dozens of Democrats in tough races voted against adjourning.
“Vote no on this adjournment resolution. Give Congress a chance to vote on extending tax rates,” Boehner said.
Boehner’s floor speech turned the vote on adjournment into a referendum on the tax cuts, which has divided Democrats for months. President Obama wants to extend tax cuts for families making less than $250,000, while allowing taxes to rise on income above that threshold. Many centrist Democrats have joined Republicans in arguing for extending all of the tax cuts.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Subscribe to the Michelle Malkin newsletter
February 22, 2012 12:44 PM by Michelle Malkin
33 CommentsSurprise: UK’s Version of ‘Buffett Rule’ Failing to Bring in Expected Revenue
February 22, 2012 11:05 AM by Doug Powers
53 Comments
The high priests of eco-destruction
February 22, 2012 07:50 AM by Michelle Malkin
124 Comments
Gallup: Unemployment Climbing Back to 9% for February
February 21, 2012 02:56 PM by Doug Powers
70 Comments
Overnight Open Thread: Dems Try to Manufacture New Voting Bloc
February 20, 2012 10:24 PM by Doug Powers
55 CommentsDisability Claims Up As Unemployment Benefits Run Out
February 19, 2012 11:16 PM by Doug Powers
70 Comments
It Wouldn’t Be Saturday Morning Without Another Friday Night Solyndra Document Dump to Sift Through
February 18, 2012 09:52 AM by Doug Powers
41 Comments
Categories: Politics
Sister Toldjah
» Quote of the Day: “There is no male equivalent for abortion”Hot Air
» Open thread: The last debateRedstate
» Obama the Tax Cutter? Think AgainHot Air
» Poll: Romney on the rise in Arizona?
Um, 30 days from today would still be before the elections. Forcing a vote through procedural maneuvers is wiser than waiting until after November midterms so Democrats can lose, vote down extending the cuts, then flee.
The Dems have stepped in it and Boehner is making them pay for it.
Well played.
That would be 30 legislative days, not calandar days. Possibly, depending on what a legislative day is, Pelosi could make sure the 30 legislative days extend past November 2nd.
Not if the recess at the end of the week to go campaigning. If they recess they would wait to hold the vote until after they return in Novemeber after the election.
BINGO!
I wonder if one of these “discharge petitions” could also be used to smack down Obama’s attempts to stop further drilling in the Gulf? Just an idea.
Let them adjourn as long as we can lock the doors and revoke their pass keys after they leave.
At this point it’s all posturing anyway. Nothing is going to be taken up or passed by the Senate before the election.
LOL–like that PreCambrian cunt will do anything about it.
The whinny babies wanted only what they wanted, so they won’t vote. Whether they vote or not, they all need to be fired. I’ll remember in Nov and next Nov and the Nov after that, to infinity and beyond.
Incoming! (ducks and covers from c-bomb)
Same here!!
Ouch!
I believe …cakes is a gal.
If a guy had posted that, there’d be a nuclear explosion….
More dissembling, misrepresenting the facts and conflation from Rep Boehner. The vote he references can be taken after the elections and positively impact tax paying voters before this Congress is finally adjourned in December.
Oh Yeah, why not go for the thirty day thing? A pox on both thier houses.
Oh she’s much more than that!
Johnny Kelly: Say kid, what do they call you?
Lil: Impressive.
Danny Vermin: Dames are put on this earth to weaken us, drain our energy, laugh at us when they see us naked.
According to Rush, Boehner managed to get enough votes to pass the tax extension, then the Democrats voted to adjourn instead. Dead thread.
Heard a line on the radio the other day, that would do us all good to remember… The line, we must all stop referring to this battle as an extension of the BUSH TAX CUTS, and start referring to it as the OBAMA TAX INCREASES… Truer words were never spoken… For a fact, if DEMS leave without action on this, it will raise taxes on everyone, period…
Rep.Boehner, please reach across the aisle and smack them again. Thanks.
Because the “thirty day thing” would allow the Democrats to go home and claim they were supporting tax cuts, and then come back as lame ducks to throw it in the dumper.
See #16 above. All of the dissembling and misrepresentation is coming from your fellow Democrats and soon-to-be ex-Congressmen.
In the real world, the responsible world, businesses, even small ones, and households plan their activities for the next year prior to 4:00 p.m. on December 31.
Think about it Z. The Democrats have a lock on both branches of government that deal with revenue and expenses. They have no plan for revenue (taxes) and no plan for spending (budget) for the largest economy on earth and the largest government. Tomorrow is the last day of the 3rd quarter and they have not even started!
We got all this other CRAP from them, but a budget and a tax plan so the rest of the world can plan their lives is unimportant to these self-absorbed, elitist, power mad, utterly incompetent, politicos.
When I “pull the trigger” on November 2, all I will feel is recoil.
re: granite
I would applaud if any male said it in reference to any deserving female. I don’t hold men to any other standard than I would a female.
A vote for ANY Democrat is a vote for Pelosi and Reid. As Dick Morris says, the moderate Democrat is as extinct as the Dodo bird. We should call this the Reid/Pelosi tax hike.
Don’t get me started about what women should & shouldn’t be doing/saying/held accountable for…
Didn’t bother me a bit. Tell it like it is, I say.
Hey “SAP” where have you been? I thought maybe you gave up and realized your side is toast. You don’t have to answer this post because I won’t “engage” you. Just wondering why you show up sometimes, just to SAP and then you are gone. What purpose does that serve? Or are you trying to hi-jack a dead thread? Hahahahahahaha!
I can’t say the word c*nt or any other slang commonly used to refer to sexual parts or activities with those parts involved.
I once got escorted from my home by the police (I was 18 at the time) because I had sworn at my sister – called her a b*tch. My mom heard about it – she was at the cottage and my sister phoned her to complain – and told me I was not going to live under her roof if I used that kind of language.
Of course you do realize that Zyzzyg is one of those types that is falling for the Dem’s who claim they are against the Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda and would vote Pelosi out of her leadership position if re-elected (even though they voted with the Pelosi/Reid/Obama agenda 90%+ of the time).
From a public relations/marketing standpoint, the dems are shredding their goodwill again…
See? All those people jumping down Boehner’s throat a couple weeks ago, take note and pay attention.
You were upset at his RESPONDING to a question. That question was framed by Obama and the Democrats. If you let them start the debate, you must assess the principle concept and reframe the debate appropriately and advantageously to your side.
Obama ‘knew’ he could make the headline ‘Republicans hold middle class tax cuts hostage’. That’s how he designed it. That’s how Scheiffer phrased it (as though it was coming from Obama himself).
The fact is that this isn’t about tax cuts. Nobody’s taxes are getting cut. This is about tax increases.
Now that time has passed and people realize that it isn’t about ‘tax cuts’ or ‘holding tax cuts hostage’. . . it is about raising taxes. The debate isn’t about lowering taxes, it’s about raising taxes.
Boehner has done well here. He supports tax cuts. He’s against tax hikes. Understand that before you get upset by an answer to a leading question.
Having said that, you just KNOW it absolutely kills the left in DC and in the media to have to constantly talk about the BUSH tax cuts.
That has to eat at them like no tomorrow. That’s why Pelosi wanted to change the name to the Obama tax plan.
This debate has worked out well. I don’t think they are going to vote on anything and all taxes will be increased Jan 1. R’s just have to keep supporting tax cuts no matter how the D’s characterize them and the debate.
zigzag wants us to believe the Dems would return to DC in November and vote to extend tax cuts. Tell us, why shouldn’t they just do that now? eh?
Speaking of someone characterizing the debate. I watched some of Mark Lamont Hill on O’Reilly the other night. Here’s a ‘academic and teacher’ that begins a project with a desired outcome and proceeds to find evidence supporting his desired outcome.
The dude is completely disingenuous. It’s as though he WANTS and NEEDS the Tea Party to be racist. A racist tea party makes him happy.
He sees a crowd of people and he thinks, they are racists. Then his academia kicks in and he has to figure out how to prove it.
That privileged dude has no concept of honest and actual evidence.
The Tea Party is the new center of the country. All races are welcome. Even Mark Lamont Hill.
Those aren’t really tax hikes you know. It’s just the government keeping more of it’s own money. It has been benevolent up until now.
You bourgeois fools don’t really think that the boodle is yours do you?
Thacker. Good point about framing the debate. In line with that I wish Republicans would quit using that 250,000 number as a cut off. First of all it is really $125,000 for each partner in a marriage. People 10 years out of college in most technical fields make about that. Hardly rich.
Second why do the Republicans not challenge the MARRIAGE penalty. If unmarried, that same person can make 200,000 before being label “RICH”. That is a $75K marriage penalty for each partner in the marriage. Is this a way perhaps to kill marriage as an institution? Then there is the indexing, or lack of it. With inflations, salaries would rise right into that tax bracket.
Republicans need to challenge the rhetoric.
No the thirty day thing would force a vote, up or down.
Do you even read what is posted?
For your benefit from the text that MM posted, “. . . appeared resistant to using a procedural maneuver called a “discharge petition” to force a vote on the issue.”
I’d like a vote. Would you? Even if it would require a wait of thirty days? Rep Boehner has an opportunity to force the issue, and isn’t doing so. His sincerity about wanting to vote on this tax issue is at question.
Finally, avoid speculating on what the Dems will, or won’t do. Focus on what is being done.
Dems are delaying a vote on the issue, and the Reps are unwilling to force the issue by using and supporting the discharge petition.
As I said in my original post. A pox on both of thier houses.
I saw that on O’Reilly too. Mark Lamont Hill is an idiot. And he talks so fast, it makes my head swim. As he went on and on, demanding that O’Reilly ADMIT that there is solid proof the Tea Party is racist, he got more and more agitated. Toward the end, he was practically ballistic. I thought his head was going to explode. O’Reilly just sat there very calmly letting Hill look stoopid.
I am tiring of the old talking point that dems have cut the taxes of 95% of the American people. Lies, lies, lies. That did not happen! How can they continue to get away with blatant lies? Most are not even called on it when they say it.
Lamont Hill is the court jester on O’Reilly. Not very funny however, like Combs. He just babbles in interrupts but never answers a question or presents a fact.
No.
The vote can take place after the fall adjournment, and therefore Rep Boehner has mis-characterized what is happening.
A fall adjournment does not mean the issue cannot be raised during the lame duck session.
For the record, I am not a Democrat.
But why not now? Could it be because they are gutless?
I’m betting they will let it lapse.
Whether OneDerBoy understands he’ll lose in 2012 and his domestic tax terrorists will not win another election in the next 20 yrs. is unknown. But, this just could be the last straw with a majority of voters.
We need to do away with this lame duck nonsense. It used to take weeks to wind up affairs at home and make it to D.C. after winning an election. I don’t see why we couldn’t seat the winners the day after the election.
Well, Drudge has the house did vote to adjourn without a vote on the Bush tax issue. The house is in debate for the 9/11 health bill per Fox.
L
Agreed.
What you say is true and has merit. However, this thread is about voting on extending the tax cuts.
What you say has merit. Yet, the vote on extending the tax cut can happen in the lame duck session. Yes, or no?
OK. Wear gloves and a padded jacket.
That’s actually called a ‘shooting jacket.’
Have I got rent free space in your head? Are you thinking about me that much, that you are actually noticing when I post?
My side is our great Nation. What is your side?
Of course, I do not have to answer your post. On that we agree. But, you have already “engaged” me by commeting on my post. Are you absent the capacity to fully appreciate the irony of your statement?
I show up and comment when I want to. There is no requirement to post and comment on every thread. Or, maybe you do not understand that?
This thread is hardly dead, and I am hardly highjacking anything. Just asking questions and giving my opinion on what MM has posted. Do you have a problem with that?
Finally, I am unfamiliar with the term “SAP”.
Please avoid speculating about me. You do not know where I stand. If you want to know . . . ask.
My first post on this thread said, ” . . . a pox on both of thier houses . . .”
The Dems for delaying the vote and the Reps for not pursuing the thirty day option.
Z, Agreed.
Extending or not extending the tax cuts is a means to providing certainty one way or the other.
People at this point just want to know what the rules are; good or bad. By deferring Congress still has not “set the rules.”
We need for a vote, up or down; all politics aside.
Flashback…
The next day, a Hot Air commenter said:
I went to D.C. and sat on the floor of the House of Representatives during that “Texas Tea Party” in 2008.
In fact, that was the first Tea Party I had in my life.
I think voter discontent only increased with TARP (part 1 in 2008 and part 2 in 2009), the stimulus, bailouts, and Obamacare.
There are now three parties:
1) The fringe “Cocktail Party” Republicans
2) The massive “Tea Party” core of this nation, and
3) The fringe Communist Party Democratic Socialists.
No.
The option to vote on this issue remains. Rep Boehner statement says the opportunity to vote is lost with the fall adjournment. That is patently false.
I’d like a vote. In the lame duck session or using the the thirty day discharge petition, not being pursued by Rep Boehner. And, yes the vote should happen sooner rather than later.
If the point was to have the vote well before November 2nd, the 30 legislative day option would be of no use as there most likely too few legislative days remaining before the election date, but at least it still should be pursued.
Careful. You agreeing with me might be damaging to your reputation. And, my agreeing with you very well might be dismissed and/or ignored.
Absolutely, an up or down vote, the sooner the better. Use the discharge petition even though it will require thirty days, and yes despite the fact that Rep Boenher does not appear to support that tactic. And, the Dems want to punt to the lame duck session.
Again, from my initial post on this thread – “. . . a pox on both of their houses.”
If I had one I’d be concerned with the damage.
I am old enough to remember the Federal budget process and how it wound its way through the Congress. That is the primary responsibility of Congress. It is now priority last in their agenda.
Now they just spend money with no plan, no direction, no objectives (other than power and re-election), or no restraint. The perfect climate to encourage deficit spending.
A pox? That’s okay, but I prefer an eviction notice.
I am prepared to learn more, and your post raises questions that should be addressed.
I agree that the discharge petition should be pursued.
Rep Boehner would not be in the position he is in unless he knows how the House works and the rules that govern that body. An assumption, yet a reasonable one.
Thirty days from today is October 29, a Friday. Four days before the November elections.
That being said compells the following questions that I do not have the answers to. Anyone?
Why did the Reps (or anyone) wait for such a short window to suggest the discharge petition? Doesn’t anyone know the rules and how to use them?
Would having the discharge petition done now force the House to return and vote on the tax issue on Friday the 29th of October?
Again, the Dems have punted to the lame duck session, and the Reps have not used the tools available to them to press the issue.
Adjourned! Fine, get out and stay out!
Don’t ever come back! Useless tools!
SAP=Swoop and Poop
The Left are really showing their colors now. The uncertainty of the tax situation for 2010 is part of what is driving the lame economy. I run a small business and have cut it to the bone, if I had any more bone to cut I would do it now as the Dems have signaled quite clearly that taxes for the productive part of society are going to go up. I wouldn’t be surprised to see higher jobless numbers going into the mid terms. Anyone with a brain can see that it’s futile to hope for a better environment tax-wise when the mid terms are over. The vote on the Bush tax cuts have to be made before the year is out, the Dems have taken the cowards way out and will not extend the cuts especially in a lame duck session.
“Many centrist Democrats have joined Republicans in arguing for extending all of the tax cuts.”
NEWS FLASH: There is no such thing as a centrist democrat. Just desperate democrats trying to save their jobs now that they see the writing on the wall.
It’s over for the socialist democrats. They have cut their own throats every chance they got and pay day is coming.
For a Democrat (and all too many Republicans) a day without a tax increase is like a day without new onerous regulations. At least we do not have any Republicans saying “Read My Lips” – yet.
Hold firm Mr. Boehner, hold firm.
=
If you must feed the trolls
feed them to the alligators
zyzzyg is absolutely right. Boehner should use whatever means are in his power to bring this to a vote. By not using this ‘discharge petition’, he is (in his own words) as guilty of “turning his back on Americans” as those he’s lambasting for their delays.
– zyzzyg
I suspect it’s only very recently that enough of the Dems fell away from supporting the expiration of the tax cuts to guarantee that if the discharge petition were used, it would generate the desired result.
After all, no point using it if the up/down vote resulted in allowing the tax cuts to expire. That would have been an undesireable result (although it would have been a boon for anyone running aginst a Dem, I imagine).
***
SanFranNan runs a tight ship. The 210 to 209 vote allows some of the “blue dog” Democrats to get some political cover.
***
This vote would have looked a lot different if they weren’t staring down the barrel of the election cannon that is going to blow them into “Funemployment” in Jan. 2011.
***
See how “blue” they are when they come back after the Nov. 2, 2010 election. I think there will be a lot of Kamikazi voting “dogs” then.
***
John Bibb
***
I always get the sense from you, Zyzzyg, that you can’t ever leave an issue without adding a “Yes, but the GOP shares some blame here, too” kind of note. Is it just me?
The fact is that it was the GOP who got the tax cuts passed in the first place!! And now they are to be faulted for not being able to stop a Dem majority from letting the cuts expire??
Is it possible just once to say, “You know, on at least just this issue, the Dems OWN this, plain and simple”?
Pelosi and her Democrats have clearly shown us what we need to do.
We need to make sure Republicans win back the House and the Senate in a breathtaking LANDSLIDE.
We also need to make sure that Republican candidates win their elections to State and Local offices, so that Democrats at all levels become as angry at Pelosi as we are.
If we want to keep our taxes from going up we need to make sure politicians at all levels hear our call for low taxes, reduced spending and fiscal responsibility LOUD AND CLEAR at the ballot box!
Time to get to work to help our favorite candidates!
Make sure all of your friends and family are ready to vote properly.
Election Day is in only 34 days and ealry voting starts before that.
From the Senate Dictionary, a “legislative day” is a day that starts when the body is convened after an adjournment, and continues until the next adjournment. So, a legislative day could last a whole week, from the body being called to order on Monday to being adjourned on Friday, or it could only last one calendar day, if the body is adjourned daily, at the end of business.
With Pelosi Galore running the sessions of the House, 30 legislative days could last well beyond the November 2nd election.
So it would seem that Mr. Boehner’s knowledge of parliamentary procedure is sound.
Cambrian?
cicero–perhaps I should have used Cretaceous?
Dang it!
You know, I’d be willing to pay higher taxes on three conditions.
First, I would want Congress to cut the federal budget by 3% to 5% per year for four years.
Secondly, I would want liberal millionaires to voluntarily contribute an extra 10% of their income to the federal coffers for the same four years.
Thirdly, eliminate “off-budget” spending. No more hiding stuff and pretending it doesn’t count toward the deficit and national debt.
Then I’d be willing to pay up a little more to help my kids and grandchildren to avoid the crushing debt that is going to hit them like a freight train in a decade or two.
Of course, I am not holding my breath…
I just hope Boehner is as concerned about cutting spending and taxes AFTER November as he appears to be now. Frankly, I don’t really trust establishment GOP “leadership” to govern with any fiscal discipline much less actual conservative zeal.
Harsh, very harsh.
I like it.
Once again, Democrats prove there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. They PRETEND to want to extend tax cuts, just as many of them PRETENDED to oppose Obamacare, or PRETENDED to oppose forcing Americans to pay for abortion…but when all is said and done, no matter how many Democrats PRETEND to oppose the radical left’s agenda, Nancy Pelosi gets the votes she needs to pass her radical agenda. This time by one convenient vote.
Democrats have no intention of extending all the Bush tax cuts!
These weasels can run but they can’t hide. We’ll get ‘em in November.
Uh yeah:
Do you?
Does anyone know, would pushing a discharge petition involve forfeiting the right to damand a vote now?
If it doesn’t get done with these tax and spend politburo hacks, they can just make it retroactive. They wanted all these tax cuts to sunset, so let them all sunset, or make them all permanent. I would love to see us “save” 2.8T by having the low wage earners resume paying their fair share. After all, that was the tax rate under Billy Jeff when we had everything working wonderfully, according to any democrat you ask. Let them all go, and see how the dems like actually putting their dollars where their mouths are.
Sorry, but I can’t take credit for that. I believe it was coined by our fellow commenter bear1909.
Thank you.
It is just you.
Did you read what MM posted? First she took the Dems to task for punting, and then she questioned why the discharge petition was not being pursued. I commented on both.
A pox on both thier houses.
Yes, the GOP passed the tax cuts in the first place.
And no, they are not being faulted for not stopping the expiration of the tax cuts. They are being faulted for not using the tools available to them.
Re-read what MM posted about Rep Boehner.
Again, I am responding to what MM has posted. The first part being about the Dems and the second part being about the Reps.