Roy Blunt: Congressional Democrats Should Pass Important Legislation Before Christmas Recess

On Monday afternoon, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri issued a statement calling on House Democratic leaders to use the limited number of legislative days left this session to get done what the House Minority Leader says it should have already done.

"Now, with only a handful of legislative days left until Christmas, the majority will have to put aside the political games and work with Republicans...For our troops, spending Christmas away from their families is hard enough without being denied the funding necessary to accomplish their mission. But all we've seen this session is legislation that satisfies the majority's perceived political needs first, instead of the real and growing needs of our troops in the field...[Moreover], Democrats' first stab at [passing the annual appropriations bill] produced a series of spending bills that sought to dole out billions more than was requested. Now comes word they'd like to 'split to difference' on their reckless spending agenda with Republicans -- between the $22 billion of unnecessary spending suggested by them, and the zero dollars in unrequested funding suggested by us...Almost a year has passed since Democrats took over the reins of this Congress with promises of openness, accountability, and a renewed sense of purpose. These next few weeks will go a long way toward determining how serious they were in making that pledge," Blunt stated.

Blunt's statement comes as President Bush also presses the Congress to pass what he feels are some of the most important pieces of legislation on its plate, and as a rising tide of Democrats express growing discontent and disgruntlement with the lawmakers they voted into power in the hopes that key domestic issues would be addressed and runaway government spending practices reigned in and made more transparent.

The Democratic Majority in Congress, which bills itself as the New Direction Congress, has proposed the greatest single year tax hike in United States history this year.

"The end of 2007 is approaching fast, and the new Congress has little to show for it," the President told the press today as he stood before the White House's Rose Garden.

The Bush Administration insists that Congress needs to pass legislation reforming the alternative minimum tax (ATM) so that middle-class taxpayers are not slapped with unusually high tax bills because of unintended consequences in addition to the concerns noted by Blunt.

The Democrats in Congress have drafted legislation that would circumvent the ATM's "fleecing" of middle class Americans, but it would make up for the lost revenues by significantly ratcheting up the income taxes paid by executives at hedge funds and buyout firms by changing the definition of what constitutes "income" for them. The Republicans and the Administration have made it clear that they do not find that solution acceptable at all, saying it selectively targets the wealthy and the free market for no good reason and would wind up harming shareholders, the great majority of whom are members of the middle class.

The Democrats say they are concerned with ending the war in Iraq, getting an energy bill passed into law, and passing legislation that would set up stricter regulations on lenders to mitigate future lending abuses the likes of which led to the housing market crash and record numbers of foreclosures this year and that they will not yield to political pressures from the White House.

Original Newswire Source:
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