“I am obviously not going to vote for a piece of legislation that I haven’t been able to help craft,” Kyl said.
He noted that the White House dispatched senior campaign adviser David Axelrod to meet with Senate Democrats Tuesday “to try to get support for what the president was proposing because there were Democrats that didn’t support his proposal.”
Obama’s decision to repeat his vow this week to veto an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy sparked a brief flurry of second-guessing from several Democratic Senators who want a higher threshold than the $250,000 level Obama has set since he ran for office for years ago. Under Obama’s plan, people making more than $250,000 would not have their current tax rates extended, while lower income levels would.
“We would protect the small business people in this country who create most of the jobs coming out of a recession, the Democrats proposal does not,” Kyl said.
Reid blocked an attempt by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for side-by-side votes on the Bush tax cuts. Per McConnell’s offer, Democrats would get a vote on the president’s plan and the GOP would get a vote on a full extension of all Bush-era tax cuts. But by the end of the day, McConnell was the one objecting to a similar Reid offer, because he said he needed to review the Democratic proposal and wasn’t comfortable with Democrats choosing the GOP’s amendments.
Reid’s offer was unusual in that he said he would not force either measure to overcome a 60-vote hurdle. Reid also moved to cut off debate on the small-business tax measure, complaining that Republicans were trying to “filibuster by amendment.” Reid’s move also would allow for a vote on the House-passed small-business tax bill, which Democrats have said would allow wealthy individuals, such as Paris Hilton, to claim the break.
Senate Finance ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Democrats deserve the filibuster label.
“We are not filibustering; they are the ones that are filibustering,” Hatch said. “That is the phoniest argument I have ever heard Harry make. ... They are the ones that are filibustering because they are not allowing votes.”
Hatch said Republicans feel they have the upper hand in the broader tax debate, which is why they are forcing the issue.
“We are pretty darn sure it’s going to be tough for the Democrats to win on that,” Hatch said.
Democratic leaders, meanwhile, huddled with Obama at the White House for about an hour to talk tax policy, elections and the rest of the agenda in the short time left on the calendar before lawmakers head out of town for the August recess.
Majority Whip Dick Durbin dismissed the worries of some Democrats behind the scenes that the president had muddied their message: “We can walk and chew gum. We can talk about creating jobs and reasonable tax cuts for working families in the same breadth. We can do both.”
The Illinois lawmaker also sounded confident that Democrats would be able to defeat the Republican push to extend all of the Bush tax cuts for a year.
Rep. Bill Cassidy has his blood drawn by Alesha Barbour during a free hepatitis screening in the Rayburn House Office Building hosted by the Congressional Viral Hepatitis Caucus to recognize "National Viral Hepatitis Testing Day."
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