This week, when speaking at children's toy K'NEX factory in Pennsylvania, President Obama urged the House of Representatives merely to pass what Harry Reid's Senate has passed and send him the bill.
The Senate has already passed a bill to keep income taxes from going up on middle-class families. That’s already passed the Senate. Your member of Congress like Allyson and Chaka, other Democrats in the House, they're ready to go. They're ready to vote on that same thing. And if we can just get a few House Republicans on board, we can pass the bill in the House. It will land on my desk, and I am ready -- I've got a bunch of pens ready to sign this bill.This implies that the House is intransigent and uncompromising. What Obama neglected to mention is that the House has already passed a comprehensive tax cut package that prevents taxes from going up on middle-class families - it's just that the President and Harry Reid will refuse to even consider it.
The Republican-controlled House passed legislation on a 256 to 171 vote that would extend the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts on income, capital gains and dividends through 2013. Republicans were joined by 20 Democrats in voting for the proposal, which would extend the tax cuts for all income levels.So to take stock: President Obama wants Republicans to fall in line with legislation that has received only Democrats to vote for it so far. And President Obama wants to flat-out ignore a bill that passed with bipartisan support in the House that accomplishes his stated goal of preventing a tax hike in middle-class families.
And it's the Republicans who are the obstructionists?
