SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – A pair of tamed but persistent wildfires still burned in the hills and mountains around Interstate 5 after a wild week of burning brush in the area north of Los Angeles.The Republican U.S. House voted Thursday to extend all expiring income-tax cuts through next year. The cuts were set to expire Dec. 31.
The Democratic Senate voted last week to extend current tax rates for incomes of less than $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples, a plan advocated by President Obama.
Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, predicts the Nov. 6 election will determine which version becomes law.
“My hope is the losing party will yield to the winning party after the election,” Stutzman said in a phone interview before the vote. “That’s why voters are going to have to decide what’s good, because it’s the government that spends their money.”
Stutzman seems either unyielding or certain of big gains by Republicans. Asked whether he could vote for the Democrats’ current version of tax cuts, he said, “No, I’m not ready to support a tax increase at all.”
Republicans are nearly certain to retain control of the House. Stutzman said if Democrats keep their Senate majority and Obama is re-elected, “my hope would be that Democrats will do exactly what they did in the 2010 lame duck, and that’s just extend all (tax rates).”
The time between the November election and the seating of a new Congress the following January is considered a lame-duck session.
Nineteen Democrats – including Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd, who is running for a Senate seat – joined 237 Republicans in voting to extend the 2001 and ’03 tax cuts Wednesday. One Republican and 170 Democrats opposed the legislation.
“I believe we can all agree that the economy is not as strong as we would like it to be. With that in mind, I voted to keep all tax rates at their current levels,” Donnelly said in a statement.
Rep. Mike Pence, R-6th, a candidate for governor, said in a statement, “During this difficult economy, it is simply a bad idea to raise taxes on anybody.”
The White House said Tuesday that Obama would veto the bill.
The House voted 257-170 Wednesday to defeat a Democratic proposal to raise the tax rate for high earners from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. All Republicans and 19 Democrats, including Donnelly, opposed the measure.
