The fiscal cliff will soon be reached thanks to a Republican “dictatorship” in the House of Representatives, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Thursday.
Reid took the Senate floor to express his anger that Republicans didn’t seem interested in ending the standoff that has taken negotiations as the so-called fiscal cliff approaches.
From The Huffington Post :
“Reid argued that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) could easily end the standoff and avert the across-the-board tax hike in 2013 simply by bringing up legislation the Senate has already passed to preserve the Bush-era tax cuts for income under $250,000, covering 98 percent of taxpayers.
“But Reid charged that Boehner won’t do that because he only caters to members of his own party and will only bring up legislation supported by a majority of Republicans.”
Reid even went so far as to say the Republicans had rendered the House of Representatives into a non-functioning body. He said if a vote were placed on cutting taxes for those making less than $250,000, it would pass, but the Republican-controlled Congress won’t let that happen.
“The American people I don’t think understand the House of Representatives is operating without the House of Representatives,” Reid said. “It’s being operated by a dictatorship of the speaker, not allowing the vast majority of the House of Representatives to get what they want.”
“What goes on in this country shouldn’t be decided by ‘the majority,’ it should be decided by the whole House of Representatives,” Reid added.
There could be a range of consequences if there is on deal on the fiscal cliff, CBS News noted . About $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts would kick in, affecting everything from income taxes to the price of milk, which is fixed using a subsidy.
