Who says the Tea Party only runs the House GOP. A majority of Republican Senators just voted against the Republican plan to extend the payroll tax cut by cutting the pay of the federal workforce. It was the GOP's own legislation and a majority of Republicans voted AGAINST it. Reuters:
Republican ambivalence toward any extension of the payroll tax cut was evident in the Senate as a majority of the party's 47 senators voted against the Republican plan.So a majority of Republicans voted against the Democratic plan to extend the payroll tax cut, and a majority of Republicans voted against even the Republican plan to extend the payroll tax cut.
In other words, the Republicans don't want to extend the payroll tax cut at all. They want to raise taxes on every single working American. Not just the middle class - if you have a job, the GOP just voted to raise your taxes for Christmas.
What's hard to figure out is what the GOP is thinking here. Wouldn't Republicans in Congress want to cut taxes for everyone? Isn't that what they're always telling us they're for? Or are they making an exception in this case - an exception that might cost the economy 1.5 percentage points of GDP next quarter - simply because this was Barack Obama's idea, and the GOP wants Obama to lose, so they're willing to hold every single working American hostage.
Merry Christmas to you too.
And PS, what to make of Boehner and McConnell? It seems their word, and wishes, don't mean much in the GOP caucus.
