WASHINGTON — In the spirit of the holiday season, President Barack Obama’s tax-cut deal with Republicans is becoming a Christmas tree tinseled with gifts for lobbyists and lawmakers. But that hardly stopped the squabbling Friday, with Bill Clinton even back at the White House pleading the president’s case.
While Republicans sat back quietly, mostly pleased, Democrats and other liberals were going at one another ever so publicly. As former President Clinton lectured on Obama’s behalf, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders castigated the agreement for the TV cameras in the mostly empty Senate chamber.
The tax deal, reached behind the scenes and still informal, now includes ethanol subsidies for rural folks, commuter tax breaks for their cousins in the cities and suburbs, and wind and solar grants for the environmentalists — all aimed at winning votes, particularly from reluctant Democrats.
The holiday additions are being hung on the big bill that was Congress’ main reason for spending December in Washington, long after the elections that will give Republicans new power in January. The measure will extend Bush-era tax cuts, averting big tax increases for nearly all Americans, and keep jobless benefits flowing.
Republicans generally liked that agreement, worked out by Obama and GOP leaders.
Democrats generally didn’t, hence the add-ons.
It’s all expected to come to a decisive vote next week, total cost by the latest congressional estimate: $857.8 billion.
On Capitol Hill, Sanders spoke vigorously for 8 1/2 hours Friday in a virtually empty chamber, urging defeat of a measure he said would give “tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires who don’t need it.” He finally ended his speech, conceding, “It has been a long day.”
At the White House, Obama turned over the briefing room microphone to Clinton, who declared, “I don’t believe there is a better deal out there.” All sides, he said, “are going to have to eat some things they don’t like.”
The add-ons were being attached behind the scenes.
Almost $5 billion in subsidies for corn-based ethanol and a continuing tariff to protect against ethanol imports were wrapped up and placed on the tree Thursday night for farm-state lawmakers and agribusiness lobbyists. Environmentalists won more grants for developers of renewable energy, such as wind and solar.
For urban lawmakers, there’s a continuation of about-to-expire tax breaks that could save commuters who use mass transit about $1,000 a year. Other popular tax provisions aimed at increasing production of hybrid automobiles, biodiesel fuel, coal and energy-efficient household appliances would be extended through the end of 2011 under the new add-ons.
The package also includes an extension of two Gulf Coast tax-incentive programs enacted after Hurricane Katrina to spur development in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
The ethanol money was added despite a growing congressional opposition to subsidizing the fuel.
