Now that the Senate vote has failed and Obama's tax cut extensions for the rich deal has been made, it would seem that it's all over.
Right?
Maybe not so fast...
Seems like there is a little twist, or rather some serious arm twisting going on. And, guess who's now fighting to get those tax cut extensions for the rich...
That's why Vice-President Joe Biden and White House Interim Chief of Staff Pete Rouse invited House Democratic Leaders to the VP's mansion Saturday night for what turned out to be a two-hour meeting.
The existence of the meeting has been reported, but not the contents.
The topic, according to a source close to outgoing (but still in charge) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was how to cajole liberal Democrats in the "lower chamber" into accepting the results of the deal President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans are trying to cut. Link
According to this analysis, the vote counting math in the Senate is probably locked up because Obama has the Republicans and can get the conservaDems:
If Obama strikes a deal with the GOP, he and they will need only 18 out of 58 Democratic senators to go along with it to ensure that the coalition has 60 votes to prevent a deal-killing filibuster
Kinda interesting that it's a coalition of Obama, the Republicans and the Blue Dogs that are going to pass this travesty, but it seems once again that Nancy Pelosi may be our only hope.
The biggest problem -- most seem to have forgotten -- is in the House. Many seem to have forgotten that it is the House, which must originate tax bills, that last week voted by a 234-188 margin to limit the extension of the Bush tax cuts to families making less than $250,000 -- Obama's original campaign pledge.
...
And that is where the real crisis could kick in for White House, which increasingly is in the position of fighting with its party base. {emphasis mine}
...
The assumption is that Democrats would not want to risk blowing up the deal -- let alone risk being held responsible for raising taxes on everyone in the midst of a lingering Great Recession.
But some Democratic backbenchers, increasingly estranged from the White House and the president, seem willing to do so -- or at least talk bravely about it. "I don't see why we don't try it, what the heck?" said one Democratic senator who nevertheless wasn't convinced enough of his position to risk attaching his name to it.
Ironically, it may be up to Pelosi -- seen by many as the liberal holdover, clinging to power in the next Congress by insisting on remaining as Democratic leader -- to sell tax cuts for the rich to her fellow liberals in the House. They may not like her as much after that.
Amazing isn't it that Obama has maneuvered Pelosi into selling tax cuts for the rich.
What if she refuses to play ball? What if Nancy Pelosi tells Obama to forget it. You campaigned on ending these tax cuts for the rich and I am going to help you keep your promise even if it means letting all the tax cuts expire?
Perhaps she will point out to Obama that getting an $18B "concession" on unemployment benefits while giving up an $80B per year giveaway to the rich is a terrible deal that violates every Democratic principle.
Perhaps she will remind Obama that these Bush tax cuts for the rich are a root cause of the Great Recession and are bankrupting the nation.
It seems she has the power to stop this terrible bill. Will she use it? I'm sure the pressure must be enormous, but I have a lot of faith in Nancy Pelosi. It seems she and our liberal "back benchers" in the House the only hope.
UPDATE
Here's what Pelosi said on Dec 1:
“You hear talk about extending tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America. And those tax cuts we are told should not be paid for; $700 billion dollars in tax cuts for the top 2 percent in our country. And our Republican colleagues say we should do that and we should not pay for it. We should add that $700 billion dollars to the deficit,” she told dozens of unemployed workers who came to the Capitol to lobby for passing an extension of unemployment benefits.
“But when it comes to the unemployment insurance and just the renewal we want to have would cost $18 billion … they’re saying that has to be paid for. Have to pay for unemployment insurance, we don’t have to pay for tax cuts for the rich,” she said. Link
Go Speaker Pelosi!