Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi held a press availability highlighting the increasing isolation of House Republicans who continue to hold middle class tax cuts hostage to tax cuts for the rich.  Below is a link to the full video of the press availability and selected excerpts:   

“Once again, the Republicans have isolated themselves on this middle income tax cut.  The President is poised with his pen to sign it, it has passed the Senate, Democrats in the House are ready to vote for it, and the Republicans in the House are resisting.  Do you remember last year when we went through this on the payroll tax?  Passed the Senate, had the President ready to sign, Democrats in the House supportive and they held out, and they held out, and they held out, until they didn’t hold out any longer.  I don’t know if they understand the impact of that uncertainty on America’s households, I certainly hope they do.  

"Right now, on the floor, we’re taking up a bill, a rule that would say that we can continue until December 28th to bring up suspensions.  However, they are – there’s more serious business that we have to be dealing with.  Unless, of course, they’d like to bring up the middle income tax cut under suspension.  And I wager you, that if they did, it would be overwhelmingly – more than the two thirds needed to pass under suspension.  What are they afraid of?  Are they afraid of not, you know, afraid of stopping, holding hostage middle income tax cuts to tax cuts for the wealthy?  That’s getting really stale.  It’s getting really old.  And the closer we get to Christmas, it’s really getting boring.  It smacks a little bit of Nero, but, nonetheless it smacks of a lot of things around here."