Pelosi Plays to Win: Republicans Vote Against Middle Class

Nancy Pelosi is a fighter, and today she yanked the fake populism mask off of House Republicans by voting on a bill to extend tax cuts to middle class Americans. Republicans, of course, only wanted these tax cuts to pass if they also included tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 % of Americans. Republicans tried to mask their concern for the wealthiest as "caring about all Americans," and some cowardly Democrats were all-to-happy to let them frame the argument that way. But Pelosi effectively destroyed that nonsensical argument by forcing Republicans to vote against tax cuts for people who make less than $250,000/year. TPM reports:

Using a wily procedural maneuver to tie Republican hands, House Democrats managed to pass, by a vote of 234-188, legislation that will allow the Bush tax cuts benefiting only the wealthiest Americans to expire.

Though this is a nice start, it's unlikely that Republicans will let this pass in the Senate. But at least we can make and have made them vote against the cuts.

I actually agree with Duncan Black, who says we should just let the "Bush tax cuts" expire and then introduce the shiny new Obama tax cuts. But I suppose that would be much too uncivilized.