Biden Is Sent to Capitol Hill to Defend Tax-Cut Deal

[spanone]

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to defend the Obama administration’s tentative deal with Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels for the next two years.

With many Democrats deeply frustrated over the way the tax debate has played out, Mr. Biden was to attend lunch with his former Senate Democratic colleagues and try to persuade them to support the deal, which the White House made on Monday in exchange for keeping benefits flowing to the long-term unemployed, cutting payroll taxes for all workers for a year and taking other steps to bolster the economy.

Even before meeting formally with their caucuses, senior Democratic leaders were signaling their deep displeasure with the White House at the moment.

Leadership aides said it would be largely up to the White House to sell the deal and that they expected it would be mainly up to Republican leaders to deliver the votes needed to approve the package.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/us/politics/08cong.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

[jaxx]

1. Sounds like a lot of chickens squawking in the senate.

Abdicate responsibility and then act insulted.

[bigtree]

4. right, it's their screw-up that brought us here

. . . their inability, or unwillingness, to throw down against their republican opposition. The President wanted them to solve this before the election, but they shrank away - I guess, hoping for some election help.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Will he be selling that bridge in brooklyn while he's at it?

[TwilightGardener]

3. Enough finger pointing. By at least one account, the WH wanted

the Dems to move on the tax cut issue before the election. They did not. There is no point to screaming about it now. If they can't vote for this proposal, fine--but they need to accept their own responsibility for not bringing this to the floor much earlier.

[Tatiana]

5. Why wasn't he sent to Capitol Hill to try to get the House bill passed?

I hope Bernie filibusters.

I don't know how Biden is going to sell this... given his previous comments on the tax cut issue, I don't think he agrees with this "compromise."

Wonder why the President doesn't meet with Capitol Hill himself...

[TwilightGardener]

7. If you mean the middle class-only bill, that did pass the House, IIRC.

It did not pass the Senate, and would never have.

[Winterblues]

6. There still is the remote possibility a Courageous Democratic Senator will filibuster

I am not holding my breath because courage is something Democrats are just not known to possess.