White House Confident as Tax Cut Deal Near Vote
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2010— -- Despite the grumbling of House Democrats, the White House signaled Sunday that it expects the tax cut deal President Obama worked out with Republicans will be approved.
Even a House Democratic leader suggested Sunday that while he and others will try and change it, they won't ultimately block the $858 billion package.
On ABC's "This Week," presidential adviser David Axelrod sounded confident.
"We have a framework, we have an agreement, and I don't anticipate that it's going to change greatly," he said. "I think we're going to get strong support on both sides of the aisle."
But the Democrats are not going easily.
"Today we are a majority in the house, the majority in the senate and we control the presidency and we're acting like we have a weak hand," New York Rep. Anthony Weiner said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Another New York Democrat, Rep. Jerry Nadler, compared Republicans to "gangsters," complaining that middle class tax cuts are being held hostage.
"They're really saying, like a bunch of gangsters, that's a nice middle-class tax cut you got over there; pity if something would happen to it; and unless you give the millionaires and the billionaires a long-term tax cut, we're not going to permit the middle class to get its -- to continue its tax cut," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
The Senate is expected to vote on the measure today and even Democrats expect it to pass.
The American public overwhlmingly supports the deal, according to a new ABC News poll. Sixty-nine percent of Americans support the package overall, far outnumbering the 29 percent opposed. And even when given arguments that it'll add as much as $900 billion to the federal budget deficit, 62 percent continue to support the measure, with opposition inching up to only 34 percent.
The deal the president worked out with Republican leaders would extend all the "Bush-era" tax cuts (even those for the wealthy), extend unemployment benefits, provide about $400 billion in additional tax cuts and credits, and set new rates for the estate tax.
