House Democrats defy Obama on tax cut bill
Washington (CNN) — House Democrats voted Thursday against considering the tax package that President Barack Obama negotiated with Republicans, raising questions over the president’s influence in his own party.
Later, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, released the first version of legislation to implement the negotiated deal and said the Senate would vote Monday to open debate on it. The Senate version made public by Reid was largely the same as the deal announced by Obama, but it added extensions of some tax breaks intended to spur green energy investment, such as ethanol use.
However, the vote by the House Democratic caucus was a defiant rejection of both the agreement on tax and benefit measures, as well as what many Democrats in the chamber perceived as being marginalized in the talks by the White House.
Washington Post
12/9/10
Magnolia Tribune
