December 18, 2007

LIVE BY THE CRACKERS, DIE BY THE CRACKERS:

Cornered House leaders throw bone to Blue Dogs (Alexander Bolton, December 19, 2007, The Hill)

Members of the conservative Democratic “Blue Dog” coalition are poised to defeat a Democratic rule for debate on Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) relief and potentially hand their leadership a major embarrassment. [...]

The centrist House Democrats are prepared to oppose the Senate-passed version of AMT relief, which House leaders have planned to consider, because its cost would not be paid for by other tax increases. Blue Dogs argue the bill would violate “pay as you go” or “Paygo” budget rules the party adopted after winning control of Congress.

“To pass a rule to waive Paygo, [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] will have to have Republican votes,” said Boyd.

Reps. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) said they would likely oppose the leadership’s rule for AMT debate.


To understand how far back to the Right the country has moved over the last thirty years you need only grasp that the Democrats have to run conservative white Southern males to win enough seats to be competitive but once they're in the tent they can effectively thwart the Democratic agenda.


“I think it’s a pipe dream,” said Cooper of his leaders proposal to add revenue-raising measures to a future package of tax relief extensions in exchange for Blue Dog support on the AMT.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 18, 2007 9:36 PM
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