Barney Frank: I Won't Vote For Tax Cut Deal (VIDEO)

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, announced Wednesday that he would vote against the White House's recent tax cuts deal, but admitted that the package would likely pass despite increasingly vocal opposition from House Democrats.

"No, I won't vote for it. I don't think that I should be coerced," Frank told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, before conceding that he was "afraid that it is" going to pass anyways.

"I do not believe that raising the marginal rate from 36 to 39 percent on hundreds-of-thousands of dollars is going to affect their spending patterns," Frank maintained, countering a popular claim by Republicans that allowing taxes on the wealthiest Americans to revert to their pre-Bush rates would damage an already weak economy.

Frank also brought up a common critique of the Senate process, saying that the Democratic caucus in that chamber -- and in the House, for that matter -- had achieved a majority consensus on not extending the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent of Americans, but that Republicans were allowed to trump them because of filibuster rules.

"The Democrats got 53 votes in the Senate, but they got 36," Frank said. "Since when did 36 have more moral authority than 53."

Though pointing to this technicality, which left the White House to pursue what ended up becoming a controversial compromise on the issue, Frank accused the administration of falsely saying that Democratic opponents of the deal were engaging in "political theater."

"We ought to be able to have honest differences of opinion without those kinds of characterizations," Frank said.

WATCH:

Comments

[Carl Caroli]

01:07 PM on 12/16/2010

Vote no, let the cuts expire, then negotiate a middle class cut next year.

[GaryNMaine]

08:10 PM on 12/10/2010

This seems a simple enough matter.

House and Senate Democrats should reject this agreement after a few days of debate. They will all benefit as their esteem with American voters will grow, and their representatives' and senators' personal self-esteems will grow as they all discover that they do have ba//z after all.

And, what about President Obama (facing down the Commander and Chief)? If you win and happen to foil the Republican plan to scuttle any hopes the middle class in America might still have, President Obama will be fine. He's an adult and can quite easily turn his situation around once he finds his too.

If you lose, well, you will still have the esteem of the American people. In 2012, for those coming up for election, you will be able to beat down the Republicans as you are now legitimately the "voice for the American People."

[DrBlunt]

03:54 PM on 12/09/2010

A situation where the MAJORITY get FuFu!

[FreeProgressLiberal]

02:55 PM on 12/09/2010

Thank You!

Any wonder why Barney Frank was re-elected now?

[zpolitics]

02:25 PM on 12/09/2010

Let the tax cuts expire. Tax-cuts are the least efficient way to create job growth. It will reduce the deficit by 3.8 trillion over the next ten years. President Obama (and apparently Lawrence O’Donnell) has bought-in to the Republican philosophy of the importance of tax-cuts as a stimulating policy. The real harm to the economy is the loss of unemployment benefits. That and infrastructure spending are the effective methods for stimulus. The unemployment benefits should have been voted on first, and an attempt made to decouple them from other legislation.

[NAMU2010]

01:14 PM on 12/09/2010

Thank goodness for Barney Frank!..He should be the new Minority Leader instead of Pilosi. The Dems need leaders who speak with conviction, unlike whispering Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. The fact that conservatives can't stand him makes me like him that much more.

[jdalabama]

02:16 PM on 12/09/2010

you mean Barney Frank who almost single handedly created the economic collapse with nonsensical laws forcing banks to make loans to people who had no chance of being able to pay them back? Or do you mean Barney Frank who was arrested for running a homosexual prostitution business in his own home?

[NAMU2010]

12:02 PM on 12/11/2010

Blaming the economic collapse on Frank is what I would expect you to believe.....it had nothing to do with the systematic destruction of the protections which allowed Wall Street to leverage and create investments that only made $ for themselves and eventually almost brought down our economic system.....and I seem to remember that all charges were dropped in the politically motivated arrest...made by the way only because he is a gay man

[LINY01]

11:27 AM on 12/09/2010

I am not for this bill either but Barnster is a hypocrite. He had no problem being coerced to pass TARP, which 80% of the people did not want. Maybe Paulson was better at coercing.

[NAMU2010]

01:23 PM on 12/09/2010

More than 80% of the American people have no idea how close we came to finacial collapse. TARP will cost about $25 billion when all is said and done. Not bad considering what would have happened of we had done nothing like the Republicans wanted. As much as I would like to hang it all on W, both parties had a hand in creating the mess we are now in. Although TARP was distasteful, I believe it was necessary to preserve the worldwide financial sytem.

[jdalabama]

02:17 PM on 12/09/2010

say there, genius, TARP was a Republican thing put in place by Bush. Obama voted against it as a Senator.

[Ravenlea]

11:11 AM on 12/09/2010

In case anyone has missed it, I highly recommend Al Franken's eloquent and telling speech on taxes. I really hope people both listen to it and pass it along to as many others as possible. I think it's one every American should hear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVURyaA9UWY&feature=player_embedded

This is and interesting "White Board" explanation from the White House - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOH6t6mxuJM&feature=player_embedded

[myke3000]

01:40 PM on 12/09/2010

Thank you for the links...good stuff!

[newtom]

11:01 AM on 12/09/2010

Good for you, Barney! We'll see a few "progressives" vote against this to make their point, but it's all just a matter of making a point.

It's all rIght on cue and keeping to the script.

[Jerry Lammers]

10:54 AM on 12/09/2010

Thanks Barney!!!!!

[boston996]

10:31 AM on 12/09/2010

Barney, I don't usually like your policies.
But, I am glad you at least have a set to say NO !!!!!
Let the tax cuts expire, no more unemployment extensions!!!!

[PeachesinBoston]

12:31 PM on 12/09/2010

I'm mad that Obama has not used his set yet...

[mollybeejay]

03:58 PM on 12/09/2010

Peaches, I'm with you on that on. Obama has become wimpy.

[Jim Welke]

10:25 AM on 12/09/2010

Welfare for Rich People

Wow, the hits keep coming. The Obama Administration seems to get nothing right. Who is President Obama taking advice from, Mitch McConnell? Their decision to extend the Bush tax cuts is nuts. Nuts! We’re gonna take on more debt in order to save rich people, millionaires, like $10,000 a year. And then, working schmucks will be paying for years -- diverting money from better uses -- to finance that debt. This is insane.

more: http://completelybaked.blogspot.com/2010/12/welfare-for-rich-people.html

[JAMAICAJAGUAR]

10:23 AM on 12/09/2010

I would love to know what percentage of the Democrats in the congress & senate voted for the Bush tax cuts back in 2001.

[Ricardo01]

12:28 PM on 12/09/2010

The vote in the senate was a 50-50 tie. Cheney broke the tie.

[myke3000]

01:41 PM on 12/09/2010

I also heard it was passed via reconciliation...i could be wrong

[wowisdabomb]

10:15 AM on 12/09/2010

Any democrat that votes for this abomination should be primaried and defeated.. it is the nuclear option, and the only thing they WILL understand.

[MiddleRiver]

10:12 AM on 12/09/2010

Good for you, Barney.

Now go to your colleagues in the Senate and remind them of history. When they had the slimmest of a majority, they ridiculed any attempt at a filibuster with this phrase, "the American People want an UP-OR-DOWN VOTE." EVERY GOP senator and every GOP pundit repeated "UP-OR-DOWN VOTE." It was their mantra.

Harry Reid was there. He doesn't even have to invent a battle plan - the GOP already did it. The choice being fed to us by the President is false: tax cuts for everyone or for no one. The senate did not push the issue. Make them filibuster holding tax cuts for all Americans on their 1st $250,000.00 hostage to tax cuts for the rich. Make them filibuster extending unemployment benefits. Senators from high unemployment states would have to surrender. This is not rocket science.

We got Roberts and Alito rammed down our throats with a smaller GOP majority. The failure of this Democratic senate leadership makes me seriously wonder if they are really committed to anything. Granted, there has also been a huge lack of hardball leadership from the White House.