The planned vote on tax-cuts has been delayed until after elections on November 2. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Sunday that he and senior adviser to the White House, David Axelrod “doubts” that a vote will be staged before Congress adjourns next week.
The delays were blamed on Republican stubbornness in refusing to pass the President’s planned extension of the Bush administrations tax cuts for middle income earners only. The GOP wants the tax cuts to be extended for the wealthiest of households also.
The Democrats have been accused of making a calculated decision to extend the vote until after the elections because of the political ramifications and economic impact raising anyone’s taxes may hold at this point. House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has further stated that the decision to put off the vote is “the most irresponsible thing that I have seen since I have been in Washington, D.C.,” and that ending the uncertainty over the fate of taxes would bolster the economy.
The cuts inaugurated by the Bush administration are set to expire in January of 2011, so there is concern that if the vote is put off much longer the tax cuts will expire, raising nearly every household’s tax rates and risk sending the US back into recession. The Democrats say they are determined to extend the tax cuts, but it will be easier, and less politicized on both sides, after the November election.
