More than 150 Democratic members of the House, including four from Washington, today demanded House Republican leaders allow a vote on a bill extending some of the Bush-era tax cuts.
Democratic Reps. Rick Larsen, Jim McDermott, Norm Dicks and the newly elected Suzan DelBene joined 147 of their colleagues in signing the discharge petition to enable a vote on the bill that would extend a tax cut for those earning up to $250,000 a year while allowing an existing tax break for higher wage earners to expire at the end of the year.
The House bill, HR 15, is identical to one that the Senate passed 51-48 in July.
The parliamentary ploy, while rarely successful, is intended to get Republicans to negotiate with her party’s leadership and President Barack Obama on a deficit reduction plan rather than going off the fiscal cliff, DelBene said.
“It’s incredibly important that we don’t play brinksmanship with middle class families, “ DelBene said in an interview.
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