The ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said on CNN this morning that Democrats who voted to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts won’t be accused of being flip-floppers for voting against the GOP proposal this week because they were “held hostage back then too.”
“You hear the Republicans say that they don’t want to re-tax the job creators,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). “I have seen absolutely no proof that these — the tax policy of the president, by the way, which is now passed the Senate — is hurting anything other than that would hurt job creators.”
He acknowledged that getting the Senate Democrats’ extension of tax cuts for lower- and middle-income brackets only would be “very difficult” but “very, very unfortunate.”
“It’s unfortunate we’re in a place in Washington where right now where it seems like very little is going to be done,” Cummings said.
The congressman was asked about 89 members of the Democratic Party who voted for the tax cuts in 2010 and whether having to answer for flip-flops would be a problem this fall.
“No, because basically as far as I’m concerned we were held hostage back then too,” Cummings said. “I think basically, you know, people are — they can see through this. I know my constituents do.”
The tax cuts were last extended in the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress, when Democrats still controlled the House.
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