Today in Washington D. C. - March 14, 2008 - Democrats Pass Higher Taxes on Middle Class

On The Floor: House will today consider the Democrats’ new FISA bill (H.R. 3773) before leaving on Easter recess. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that House Democrats are planning to do the right thing and pass the Senate’s FISA modernization bill. Instead, they are pushing a bill that cannot pass the Senate, has been deemed inadequate by the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence, and would be vetoed by the president. Yesterday, The House passed the House Democrats’ budget, which would raise taxes by $683 billion, after rejecting a Republican budget, which would have retained the Bush tax cuts, repealed the AMT by 2013, and balanced the budget by 2012.

Senate: Yesterday after completing work on the budget, senators went home for the Easter recess, Following a vote-a-rama on budget amendments, the Senate passed the Democrats’ fiscal 2009 budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 70) on a mostly party-line vote. Earlier in the day, the Senate agreed to the Baucus amendment, which would extend a precious few of President Bush’s tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in 2011. However, the Baucus amendment excludes many middle-class Americans, some making as little as $31,850. A similar amendment passed last year, but Democrats took no action to make the tax changes law. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) offered an amendment for Senate Republicans that would have made all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, but Democrats voted it down. Republicans did succeed in amending the budget to block lawsuits against employers who require workers to speak English.

Among the Republican amendments defeated last night were an amendment to raise the estate tax exemption to $5 million for small businesses, family ranches and farms (which was rejected a second time), an amendment to repeal the 1993 tax increase on Social Security benefits, an amendment to make it more difficult to raise income taxes, an amendment to means test some Medicare prescription drug benefits, an amendment to restrict federal funding to sanctuary cities, an amendment which would have lowered alternative minimum tax rates. An amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to impose a temporary moratorium on earmarks was unable to overcome a point of order raised against it.

From Senate & News Sources: A number of media outlets picked up on the bottom line of the budget Senate Democrats passed late last night: that Democrats “held ranks” to “saddle millions of Americans” with “big tax increases.”

The AP wrote, “Democrats in both House and Senate pressed ahead with budget plans that would saddle millions of Americans with higher tax bills in three years by allowing some or all of President Bush’s reductions to die after he leaves office.” And The Wall Street Journal observed, “Democrats showed they would rather reduce the deficit or spend money on other programs than extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.” In fact, the AP reported that the Democrats’ budget allows for tax increases “on individuals making as little as $31,850 and couples earning $63,700 or more.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell: “This debate made clear that Congressional Democrats are willing to raise taxes on middle- and lower-income families so they can spend more from Washington. Instead of working to increase the size of the family budget, Democrats once again chose to grow the government budget—raising taxes on middle-class American families by an average of $2,300 a year and refusing to reform the middle-class tax hike known as the AMT.”

Sen. Judd Gregg: also had harsh words, saying, “[F]or the second year in a row, the Democrats’ budget refuses to address the very serious problem of unfunded entitlement obligations. The fact that this $66 trillion burden of debt is simply being passed along to future generations represents an appalling lack of leadership and fiscal responsibility.”

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