Tea Party Leaders Outraged Over House Passage of Fiscal Cliff Bill
Tea Party Leaders are expressing outrage and disappointment over the House passing a bill late New Year's Day that allows President Obama and Congressional Democrats to raise taxes on wealthy Americans with no guarantee of future spending cuts.
"Sadly, our New Year's predictions have all come true," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots. "Congress and the president had all year to do their jobs and be fiscally responsible – and, just like we said they would, they waited until the last possible moment to fail their nation miserably with a 'fiscal cliff' scheme to raise taxes and keep overspending.
The issue for those who believe the nation has a spending problem and not a revenue problem suddenly became a nightmare when 85 Republicans in the House joined 172 of their Democrat colleagues in supporting the measure that was sent over in the wee hours of the morning on New Year's Day.
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For the past 17 months the fiscal game of chicken rarely changed. Obama and liberal Democrats demanded higher taxes on families making over $250,000 annually and Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner with some assistance by presidential candidate Mitt Romney, wanted to extend the Bush-era tax cuts and reduce spending, especially on the big entitlement programs of Social Security and Medicare.
But in the end it was Obama and his team that got Boehner to go off the road as opposed to risk getting blamed for raising taxes on most every American taxpayer.
The final version that President Obama is expected to sign will extend the tax cuts for some taxpayers but individuals making over $400,000 and families over $450,000 will owe Uncle Sam more money in 2013 and beyond.
Additionally, estate and capital gains taxes will go up for the same group. The bill also extends jobless benefits for one-year and cuts Medicare reimbursements for doctors.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will add almost $4 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.
Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation is even more outraged that some Republicans – including Boehner – voted in favor of the bill.
"The Republican Party has now cast itself as the Official Tax Collector for the Great Obamacare State," Phillips wrote in an email to The Christian Post early Wednesday morning.
"Once again Republicans have surrendered their position of strength and given in to everything the Democrats wanted. This bill punishes Americans with new taxes that go not to reducing the deficit but for even more government spending. Today the Republicans stand under John Boehner's freshly laundered white flag of surrender and America loses."
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann was one of those elected in the GOP tidal wave of 2010 that voted against the bill.
"Months ago, the House passed bills that extended tax cuts for all Americans and responsibly dealt with sequestration. Unfortunately, the Senate waited until the final days of the year to look at any solutions. What they produced does nothing more than kick the can down the road on the most serious issue facing our nation.
"As I have long said, we have a spending problem not a revenue problem. The bill sent back to the House not only allowed taxes to increase but increased spending by $330 billion. It was simply something I could not support."
Although Boehner voted in favor of the bill, his top lieutenants, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California joined Fleischmann and other House Republicans in voting against the measure. House Budget Chairman and 2012 vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin also joined Boehner in voting for the bill.
Martin also applauded members of the House and Senate who voted against the bill and chastised those who voted in favor of the measure, calling on them to step aside.
"The conservatives who stood firm for the principles they were elected to uphold are to be applauded, but those who negotiated this deal and those who went along with it should be ashamed and should consider stepping down. The American people deserve representatives who will do the right thing, even in a crisis."
