Shea-Porter Casts Deciding Vote: Backs Obama Tax Hike

Washington – Despite a stalling economy and escalating unemployment, Carol Shea-Porter cast the deciding vote to skip town, paving the way for working families and small businesses to be hit with the massive oncoming Obama tax hike. (House Roll Call 546) As the nation suffers from one of the worst recessions in history, House Democrats have leveled a crushing blow to the lifeline of the economy – small businesses – and working families with their vote to leave town and return to the campaign trail before addressing the scheduled tax increases that will stifle economic growth and lead to further job loss. After force-feeding the American taxpayer with wasteful spending, bailouts and tax hikes, it is clear that the out-of-touch Democrat majority is defying the voters desire for pro-growth economic policies.

“With the nation’s economy on life support, Carol Shea-Porter cast the deciding vote to leave town without addressing the massive oncoming Obama tax hike,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “With nearly 15 million Americans out of work, Shea-Porter’s support for higher taxes sends a loud and clear signal that she has no problem contributing to the assault on economic recovery even as 39 of her Democrat colleagues voted against the measure. As the nation attempts to pull itself out of a devastating recession, Shea-Porter – at the behest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – have only made matters worse with their job-killing agenda.”

Despite the out-of-touch Democrats’ misguided spin, the call for extending tax cuts to both middle-class families and small businesses is not limited to House Republicans:

“The Economic Outlook released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday states that coming tax hikes will hinder spending and hurt recovery efforts.

‘[The] scheduled increases in taxes and the waning of fiscal policy measures that supported the economy earlier in this recovery will hold down spending, especially in 2011,’ it states. ‘The weak demand for goods and services resulting from those various factors is the primary constraint on economic recovery.’” (Jay Heflin, “CBO: Scheduled tax increases will hinder recovery,” The Hill, 09/28/20)

Now, House Democrats have decided to officially punt extending tax cuts to both hard working families and small businesses:

“Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the Assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), on Wednesday said there will be no pre-election vote on extending tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush.” (Jay Heflin, “’Van Hollen on tax cuts vote: ‘We’ll take the fight to the election,’” The Hill, 9/29/2010)

With no recovery in sight, Americans will remember this vote on Election Day.

“The strong likelihood of tepid economic growth through next year suggests unemployment may rise, rather than fall, as many forecasters currently predict.”

“This modest rate of advancement won’t be enough to generate the needed level of job growth, which suggests ‘the unemployment rate could rise by as much a 0.5 percentage point during this period,’ moving from the current level of 9.6% to 10.1%. The paper’s authors, economists David Lang and Kevin Lansing, observe “such a scenario would take the unemployment rate back to the peak recorded in October 2009.’” (Michael Derby, “Unemployment May Be Headed Up Despite Growth,” Wall Street Journal, 9/27/2010)