HolyCoast: Lame Ducks Stop the Tax Bill in the House
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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Lame Ducks Stop the Tax Bill in the House

Grumpy liberals are screwing things up for Obama and the U.S. taxpayers as the tax bill stumbles in the House:
It’s beginning to feel a lot like health care…


The Capitol is blanketed in snow, and House Democrats are tied in knots trying to overcome rank-and-file complaints about a massive bill the president negotiated with the Senate. Cue the carols and endless negotiating sessions.

Democrats shut down the House floor on Thursday as they figure out a way to get 218 votes for the president’s $858 billion tax package in the face of lingering complaints that the bill is too generous to the wealthy, extending tax cuts on income above $250,000 and adopting a more favorable estate tax. The Democratic Caucus was even forced to postpone a scheduled meeting due, in part, to the ongoing resistance to the tax bill, aides said.

Those complaints won’t go away. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), in one of her last acts in the job, now needs to figure out a procedural maneuver that will make her members happy.
Good luck with that. Those people are never happy.

Good news, though, even if the House won't work to prevent a tax hike on every taxpayer come January 1, they have acted on a vital piece of legislation:
Silent hybrid vehicles may soon be a thing of the past.

Auto safety regulators would have to set minimum sound levels for hybrid and electric vehicles under a bill approved Thursday by the House. Blind pedestrians say the quietness of hybrids can pose risks for them because they use sound cues to travel safely.

The House passed the bill 379-30. The Senate approved its version last week, and the measure now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, says it will protect blind pedestrians along with joggers, children and others who need to be alerted to approaching traffic.

The bill was supported by automakers and the National Federation for the Blind.
That reminds me of an episode of The Office in which Andy and Dwight have a duel which is one by Andy and his silent Prius:
There’s a moment when it appears that Andy has chickened out of the promised hand-to-hand combat, leaving Dwight to wander alone through the parking lot until he spots a note pegged to a hedge. In the note, Andy admits that the soft underbelly of his upbringing is his soft underbelly, making him unable to best the gawky beet farmer in a fight.

But the note is merely a ruse which allows Andy to sneak up on Dwight in his whisper-quiet Prius to pin him against the hedge. (That is so Ivy League, bringing a hybrid car to a fist fight.)

There is some concern that he may try to kill Dwight, but the Prius leaves Dwight relatively unharmed, save for a growing numbness in one leg.
Andy will have to up his game next time.

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