In the wake of the news that both the House and the Senate will likely not be voting to extend any of the Bush tax cuts prior to the election,White House spokesperson Jen Psaki issued a statement blasting Republicans for holding up the vote.
She wrote:
If Republicans in Congress think that pledging to continue holding middle class tax cuts hostage in order to borrow 700 billion for tax breaks to the millionaires and billionaires at a time of record deficits is the way to connect with working American families they are more out of touch than we thought. The President would sign a bill tomorrow that would extend the tax cuts for the middle class to avoid saddling them with a crippling tax hike, but unfortunately Republicans in Congress have made it clear they would rather stall and obstruct instead of giving working families the assistance they need. The American people will be reminded of that every day.
Insiders, however, tell TPM that a variety of recalcitrant Democrats — from those facing tough reelection fights to those who want to extend more Bush tax cuts than were already on the table to those that wanted to extend all the rate reductions — were actually behind much of the Democratic leadership’s reluctance to proceed.
UPDATE: Michael Steel, spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), responded to Psaki via email:
Folks – The statement [above] has me wondering: has the White House been talking to Democrats on the Hill, or even reading the newspaper? Â There is no tax bill for Republicans to ‘hold hostage’ – and the reason is that Democratic Leaders haven’t introduced a tax bill because Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Â Reid can’t get their Members to agree what color the sky is right now, let alone what they want to do about taxes … do we need to buy the White House a subscription to Roll Call? Has [White House Congressional liaison] Phil Schiliro lost his Blackberry or something?
When one party has control of the White House and both Houses of Congress, try to blame the other party is … silly. If you see anyone from the White House press office, feel free to let them know that the Speaker’s telephone number is (202) 225-0100.
Additional reporting by Christina Bellantoni.
