Congress and President have ‘sold us all down the road’

Rep. Allen West: House and Senate GOP Leaders ‘Sold us Down the Road’ on Payroll Tax Cut

January 6, 2012

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), speaking at the National Day of Prayer, May 5, 2011. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a Tea Party favorite, talking about the deal to extend payroll tax cut brokered by House leadership and the White House, said that the GOP House leadership had caved in to Senate GOP leaders, who “sold us down the road” for “pathetic politics” in the form of a two-month extension.

“I was very upset about what happened with this payroll tax cut extension,” West told WMAL radio station in Baltimore, Friday morning.

“We developed a good piece of legislation that took care of us for one year. It was paid for and would not decimate social security, unemployment insurance and also a two-year ‘doc fix’ and then, all of the sudden — I get back from D.C. on a Wednesday — the next day, on a Thursday, we have a conference call and we’re told were going to accept the Senate, what, two-month extension, which is absolutely pathetic policy.

“We can’t do tax policy that way,” he added.

West said that when the House Republican members get back to Washington on Jan. 17 they plan to have “some serious discussions” about getting “on the same sheet of music” because, he said, the House leadership did them a disservice by caving in to Senate Republican leadership by passing the two-month payroll tax cut extension in December.

“(W)e really felt that our leadership did not stand against the Senate Republican leadership, who kind of sold us down the road with 40 members of the Senate GOP voted for this, you know, pathetic politics. It was not policy,” West added. “And now we are going to start this Kabuki dance all over again.”

Democrats Passed Payroll Tax Extension During ‘Pro Forma’ Session on Dec. 23

By Matt Cover

January 6, 2012

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). (AP Photo/Las Vegas Sun, Steve Marcus)

(CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor during a “pro forma” session on Dec. 23 to pass a two-month extension to the payroll tax. President Barack Obama, however, this week claimed that a pro forma session means the Senate is practically in recess, opening the door for him to make appointments whenever he deems the Senate is out of session.

In justifying the appointments made on Wednesday, Jan. 4, while the Senate was in pro forma session, Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said that the Senate was “effectively” in recess because “no Senate business is conducted.”

“The Senate has effectively been in recess for weeks, and is expected to remain in recess for weeks,” Pfeiffer wrote on the White House Web site on Jan. 4. “In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called ‘pro forma’ sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted.”

However, the Senate did conduct business during a pro forma session, with Majority Leader Reid leading the unanimous consent proceeding to pass the two-month payroll tax extension.

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Richard Cordray, speaks as he visits with William and Endia Eason, not pictured, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012, at their home in Cleveland, Ohio. In a defiant display of executive power, President Barack Obama on Wednesday bucked GOP opposition and named Cordray as the nation’s chief consumer watchdog. Republican leaders in Congress suggested that courts would determine the appointment was illegal. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

“During today’s pro forma [session], the Senate entered an agreement to pass a bill providing for a 2-month extension of the reduced payroll tax,” a summary on the Senate Democrats’ Web site says.

Reid went to the floor and made the following statement, asking that when the House passed the compromise two-month extension that it be considered as passed in the Senate as well.

“I ask unanimous consent that if the House passes, and sends to the Senate, a bill which is identical to the text which is at the desk,” Reid said Dec. 23, “the bill be considered read three times and passed.”

Obama – claiming the Senate was in recess during a pro forma session – appointed former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and filled several other vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, Jan. 4.