After Joe Biden spent the weekend negotiating with Mitch McConnell, the Senate voted 89-8 for a $3.9 trillion dollar tax cut. The bill is also the first time in two decades that tax rates increase for the wealthiest Americans. According to the Tax Policy Center, only 0.6% of joint household tax filers (965,000) have incomes above $500,000.
The post midnight deal in the Senate now heads to the House and John Boehner stated he’ll bring it to the floor for a vote.
According to Politico, Rep. John Yarmuth stated House Speaker John Boehner was courageous for being willing to send the deal to the floor while many of the GOP conference could withhold support unless the plan is amended.
“He’s in a very, very difficult spot, and to a certain extent, given the dynamics of the three-way negotiations or four-way, maybe, both the Republicans and the Democrats became somewhat irrelevant in this process, ” the Kentucky Democrat said on MSNBC. “And it’s really risky what he has done to basically to agree to bring this thing to the floor when so many of his conference don’t like it. So I actually give him credit because I think he’s taken a pretty courageous stand, even if he wasn’t a very powerful player in negotiating it.”
Conservative Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah tweeted Tuesday he wouldn’t support the bill passed by the Senate.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp told CNN this morning “It’s three strikes in my book and I’ll be voting no on this bill.” He claims the bill is a hardship against small businesses and does not address spending cuts.
Their votes are not necessary for the bill to pass the House because a majority of democrats are expected to vote for this bill along with approximately 30 republicans, bypassing the tea-party caucus.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said on CNN’s “Newsroom” Tuesday morning that he would likely vote for the fiscal cliff bill which passed the Senate, but that he needs time to consider the “fine print.”