Tax Extenders In The House Today

Revenue neutral and dull? Yes, but there's still something there

Early this afternoon, the House passed H.R. 955, a simple resolution that provides for a debate and consideration of H.R. 4213, the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 which "amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend through 2010 certain expiring provisions for individual taxpayers, including: (1) the taxpayer election to deduct state and local general sales taxes in lieu of state and local income taxes; (2) the standard tax deduction for state and local real property taxes; (3) the tax deduction from gross income for qualified tuition and related expenses; and (4) the tax deduction from gross income for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers."

Forget about the merits of the underlining bill for a moment. This is a procedural resolution to allow a debate to proceed. Every single Republican-- all 173 who were voting today-- voted against proceeding. They have completely embraced pointless and very ugly partisan obstructionism. OK, that's what they think will win them back control of the government. But the resolution passed 237-182. That means 9 Democrats decided obstructionism was where it's at:

Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)
Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN)
Ron Klein (D-FL)
Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)
Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)

I called every one of these guys to ask why they decided to cross the aisle and vote with the obstructionists on this. I've talked to several of these congressmen before-- some their request when they were candidates and some several times. But none called back and none had a staffer call back. I don't even know if they switched parties or not.

A few hours later the bill itself, H.R. 4213, came up for a vote and it passed 241-181, two Republicans, Ahn Cao (LA) and Walter Jones (NC) joining all but 10 Democrats in favor. The 10 Democrats, though, weren't the same batch who voted against the procedural question. Crossing the aisle this time were:

Melissa Bean (IL)
Jim Himes (CT)
Ron Klein (FL)
Dan Maffei (NY)
Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ)
Jared Polis (CO)
Kurt Schrader (OR)
Adam Smith (WA)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)
Robert Wexler (FL)

This was even more confusing. But the first name on the list was a hint. Melissa Bean is the House Democrats' biggest tool-- she's worse than a senator-- and she never casts an outlier vote unless there's some kind of special interest/lobbyist behind it. I knew I could reach some of the guys who voted "no" on the final and, sure enough, I just got off the phone with Jared Polis. He explained that in some ways this is like a "Christmas tree bill" and that the presents underneath it sometimes have a lot to do with which lobbyists got paid the most by which special interests. Polis is a major environmental backer and-- like Heinrich, who voted against the enabling legislation-- he felt environmental entrepreneurs/investors were getting short shrift.

Let me mention against that Blue America won't be endorsing any incumbents who haven't signed on as a co-sponsor to the Fair Election Now Act (Dick Durbin's S. 752 and John Larson's H.R. 1826) and we won't be endorsing any non-incumbents who don't advocate the bill and agree to sign on as a co-sponsor as soon as they're sworn in. Polis and Polis are co-sponsors. Bean, obviously, isn't.