WASHINGTON — A relieved President Obama yesterday hailed the “strong bipartisan support” for his tax-cut deal, when the bill — which was larded up with giveaways for everyone from Big Oil to Hollywood — overwhelmingly passed a key Senate vote.
“This proves that both parties can, in fact, work together to grow our economy and look out for the American people,” Obama said after the bill easily garnered more than the 60 votes needed to advance toward final Senate passage, which is expected as soon as today.
He described the expected approval as a “substantial victory for middle-class families” that “no longer have to worry about a massive tax hike come Jan. 1st.”
Surprisingly, New York’s usually allied senators split over the $858 billion package, which extends all the Bush-era tax cuts for two years, reduces workers’ payroll taxes by about one-third for a year, and continues long-term jobless benefits another 13 months.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was one of just a handful of mostly liberal members who voted against Obama’s deal because it also extends tax cuts for people with incomes over $250,000.
It was a rare break from Sen. Charles Schumer — New York’s senior senator and a top player in the Democrat leadership team — whom Gillibrand usually follows in lockstep.
Schumer said that he wasn’t thrilled about providing “tax breaks for millionaires,” but added that Obama “successfully negotiated a number of pro-growth proposals as part of this deal.”
Neither Schumer nor Gillibrand balked at the bill’s billions of dollars in giveaways to a slew of pet causes, including $6 billion in tax credits to Big Oil for blending gasoline with ethanol, and rebates on excise taxes for rum producers in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Obama’s deal also supplied tax breaks for the Hollywood film and TV industry, solar- and wind-energy companies, NASCAR track owners and US-based manufacturers of energy-efficient home appliances.
Gillibrand complained that “we need to focus on the middle class, who are always left behind, not the people at the very top, who are doing just fine in this economy.”
Obama said he understood that some liberals and conservatives were “unhappy” with aspects of the deal.
“I share [their views on] some of them,” the president said. “But that’s the nature of compromise — sacrificing something that each of us cares about to move forward on what matters to all us.”
The bill cleared the filibuster-proof 60-vote hurdle, 83-15, with just 10 Democrats and five Republicans opposing it.
A tougher test is expected in the House, where Democrats want to increase the estate tax to better soak multimillionaires.