Pelosi says tax cut vote possible before election

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under pressure to send Democrats home to campaign with the strongest possible closing argument, said Friday she is considering calling a vote on extending middle-class tax cuts next week

Democrats, however, are divided on whether forcing a recorded vote on the issue before congressional elections in November would be politically helpful as they fight to maintain control of Congress.

"We will retain the right to proceed as we choose," Pelosi told reporters. "We'll take it one day at a time."

The most sweeping tax cuts in a generation, enacted in 2001 and 2003, are due to expire in January. Republicans want to extend all the tax cuts. President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress want to extend them for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000.

If Congress does not act, taxpayers at every income level face significant tax increases.

Obama has been pushing for a vote by year's end to extend middle-class tax cuts. But House Democrats — much like their Senate counterparts — are divided. Republicans and a few Democrats want to extend the tax cuts for everyone, even the wealthiest Americans.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid chose to postpone consideration of the tax cut extension until a lame duck session scheduled to convene Nov. 15.

House Democrats had hoped the Senate would act first, before the election, to narrow the question of which tax cuts to preserve. Sensing the impasse and wary of being branded tax hikers before Election Day, more than 30 rank-and-file House Democrats urged Pelosi to extend all tax cuts, at least temporarily.

The question for Democratic leaders is whether holding a tax cut debate, a debate and a vote, or joining the Senate in a bicameral punt would be least damaging before Election Day.

Some Democrats are wary of supporting Obama's plan to let taxes rise for the wealthiest Americans, fearing they would be accused of supporting a tax hike. Other Democrats believe they have a winning message of fiscal responsibility while making the rich pay more after years of relative prosperity.

Pelosi downplayed the political dilemma Friday.

"There isn't a person in our caucus that isn't for tax cuts for the middle class," Pelosi said. "It's not about the election. It's about the policy and we're all very strong on that, and members, with a vote or without a vote, can go home and talk about their commitment to that."

House Republican Leader John Boehner has seized on the indecision, saying that not securing a tax cut extension before the election risks a tax hike in 2011.

"Congress should not go home without stopping the tax hike on American families and small businesses," Boehner said. "Doing so would wallop every taxpayer with a tax hike in a struggling economy — and that's simply irresponsible."

House Republicans have said they are confident that their tax proposal would win a majority of votes in the House, if Pelosi allows it to come up for a vote.

Time is running short for the House to act before it breaks for the election. The House is only in session for two days next week, and Pelosi said her goal is to send lawmakers home by next Thursday.

Regardless of when the House votes, Pelosi vowed to extend the middle-class tax cuts by the end of the year.

"America's middle class will have a tax cut," Pelosi said. "It will be done in this Congress. There is no question about that."

ANALYSIS: The GOP’s Use Of Frivolous Sex And Porn Amendments To Kill Substantive Bills

By Lee Fang

Yesterday, House Democrats were forced to scrap the COMPETES Act — a jobs bill to increase investments in science, research, and training programs. Despite initial bipartisan support, the bill went down suddenly as House Republicans staged a parliamentary ambush to insert a provision that would fire any federal worker “disciplined for violations regarding the viewing, downloading, or exchanging of pornography.”

The unadulterated partisan politics were on full display shortly before the vote. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) unveiled the GOP porn amendment, announcing that it would be a referendum on the use of porn on government computers. However, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) quickly took to the floor to denounce the minority party’s “embarrassing” gimmicks to “undermine an important bill for my 9-year-old daughter, for your kids and your grandkids”:

JENKINS: If you think spreading pornography with a government computer is an act that should lead to dismissal, then vote for this motion. [...]

GORDON: For God’s sakes. And when it gets to the conference, we’ll take care of that even more. But everyone raise your hand that’s for pornography. C’mon raise your hand. Nobody? Nobody is for pornography? Well I’m shocked so I guess we need this little bitty provision that means nothing is going to gut the entire bill. This is an embarrassment. If you vote for this, you should be embarrassed.

Watch it:

Using a “motion to recommit,” the amendment scared enough Democrats to back the porn amendment, thus forcing Democratic leaders to pull consideration of the bill, possibly postponing it for weeks. House Republicans celebrated their success in obstructing the jobs bill, and promised more of the tactic in an interview with CQ. “We certainly should do more of this type of thing,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX).

But it’s not the first time Republicans in Congress have used sex-related amendments to sow division and kill substantive bills:

– Republicans, led by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), fought to kill the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act, a bill to boost energy efficiency, by forcing votes on sex related amendments. One amendment requires home contractors to ensure that no employee “has been convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, a crime of child molestation, rape or any other form of sexual assault.” The amendment was successfully placed into the House version of the bill.

– In an attempt to kill health reform, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) offered an amendment to the reconciliation “fixes” in the Senate, to force the bill to go through the House again. His amendment would ban coverage of erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders. However, Coburn had offered his own version of a health reform legislation, the Patients’ Choice Act, and his bill did not even contain his own sex offenders provision he tried to force on the Democrats’ bill. His amendment failed.

– Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) tried to bog down the FY 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill by staging a fight over grant money to study HIV risks of sex workers. The study Issa targeted was a $5 million project cleared by an NIH peer review process and was already underway. Nevertheless, Issa claimed that instead of studying Thai and Chinese sex workers, the NIH should just take “a $3.10 transit ticket to go across town” to complete the study. Avoiding a fight, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) abruptly accepted Issa’s amendment to remove the research funding.

In the one instance Democrats have stood up and opposed frivolous sex-related amendments, Republican campaign committees have quickly used those votes to claim Democrats support sex offenders. A release from the NRSC blared: “Barbara Boxer Votes To Allow Convicted Sex Offenders To Receive Taxpayer-Funded Viagra” shortly after Coburn’s amendment failed. The GOP has used sex as a political weapon to kill legislation designed to create jobs, fund research, reform health care and save energy. And as Rep. Smith noted, they plan to use this tactic more often.