Melissa Bailey Photo
For Rosa DeLauro, no deal on the “fiscal cliff” would have been better than the deal that passed the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday night.
DeLauro, who represents New Haven in Congress, was one of just 16 House Democrats who voted against a last-minute deal that prevents the federal government, for now, from going over the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
Connecticut’s four other House members and two senators, all Democrats, voted yes.
The deal passed, and President Obama is expected to sign it Wednesday. The deal prevents automatic government-wide spending cuts from going into place; it prevents the so-called “Bush tax cuts” from all expiring. Economists — and the crucial stock market group psyche — had assumed that the lack of a deal could plunge the fragile economy back into recession. At the same time, some observers have predicted that the narrow deal defers too many big questions for another round of potentially devastating showdowns. At the heart of debates over the past week of gamesmanship is whether the two parties made essential compromises to govern responsibly or whether they sold out their bases. Or whether this temporary fix helps much.
The full House voted 257 to 167 in favor of the deal, called the Tax Relief Extension Act. The Senate previously approved it. (Click here for Christine Stuart’s account of the overall vote.)
In a statement issued after the vote, DeLauro said she was glad the deal extended the tax cuts for people earning up to $250,000 a year. She was glad it extends unemployment benefits for another year for people whose benefits would have otherwise expired.
But why preserve the tax Bush tax cuts for families earning up to $450,000? Why keep permanent a tax exemption for estates of up to $10 million? Why leave for later (like in only two months) the need to settle other major debt and budget-cutting questions that will force another showdown in D.C.?
DeLauro’s statement posed those questions to explain her no vote.
The statement didn’t mention President Obama. But it echoed the arguments of fellow liberals that Obama, despite the repudiation of Republican economic arguments in the November elections, gave away too much too soon in negotiations, strengthening the Republican hand for showdowns to come.
Here’s the full text of her statement:
“I was hopeful that we would be voting on legislation that prioritized working families and the middle class over the wealthiest Americans in taking a balanced approach to the challenges we face as a nation. However, the bill before the House of Representatives tonight is not that.
“I have consistently supported making the tax cuts for the first $250,000 of household income permanent and I am pleased this bill does so. I am also pleased that this legislation extends unemployment insurance, allows some high-end tax rates to return to Clinton-era levels, and extends tax credits that benefit the working poor and students. Those are reasons to support it, but are not enough.
“I question whether those making above $250,000 need tax cuts and I cannot support an extension of the Bush tax cuts to those making up to $450,000. At the same time, this legislation fails to address the expiring payroll tax cut, meaning that millions of middle class families will see as much as a $2,200 tax increase, beginning with less take home pay in their next paycheck. This is regrettable.
“This legislation makes permanent a tax structure that benefits the wealthy — it provides permanent tax rates to the wealthy while only providing temporary tax credits to working and middle class families. A $10 million estate tax exemption is now permanent, while the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Tax Credit are only temporary.
“This legislation also does not permanently address the automatic spending cuts which threaten to cost thousands of jobs, and the debt ceiling, which if not raised, as we saw a little more than a year ago, could wreck havoc on our economy. That means we will be back two months from now under another fiscal cloud — and with many of the same people that created this crisis once again holding the economy hostage while this time calling for benefit cuts to Social Security and Medicare. This once again will put the middle class at risk.”