House Democrats Win Vote To Adjourn By One Vote

Inside baseball stuff but really odd.

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.

The Speaker of the House rarely votes (since it's nominally a non-partisan position that represents the whole House) but Pelosi had to cast the tie breaking vote.

Dozens of House Democrats signed a letter sent to Pelosi urging her to allow a vote to extend all the "Bush tax cuts" before the election. Other Democrats didn't want a vote either because they want taxes to go up or they preferred to have the issue (Republicans want to cut taxes on the rich but not the middle class!).

The latter two groups won and now a lot of the former group are going to lose big time. On their behalf let me be the first to say, Thanks Nancy!

Now the fight moves onto the lame duck where extending the tax cuts for some or all will compete with whatever recommendations the Obama 'Deficit Reduction' panned comes up with. Here's hoping we pick up enough special election seats (WV, DE, IL) to hold the line until January.

posted by DrewM. at 02:20 PM

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