Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) shutdown Republican requests Wednesday to vote on President Obama’s plan to extend tax breaks solely for middle-class Americans.
Reid said the Senate Democrats want to finish work on passing a small-businss tax measure before acting on the president’s income tax plan.
“We’ll get to the tax issues,” Reid said. “When I came here this morning, I repeat for the third time, I asked what business was before this body. Small-business jobs bill.”
The Senate’s top Republican Mitch McConnell (Ky.) requested to vote on Obama’s tax plan along with separate amendments aimed at extending tax relief to the nation’s top income earners.
Republicans, however, believe that Reid is blocking the vote to protect Democratic senators susceptible to a tough re-election from voting on Obama’s tax plan.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) pointed to this notion on the Senate floor early Wednesday saying the president’s tax proposal “is not just an economic disaster. It’s a political loser and they know it.”
