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Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun, and others will join tea party group TheTeaParty.Net to denounce the House GOP leadership’s caving on taxes later this week. House GOP leadership recently proposed $800 billion in new revenue streams in response to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's proposal on behalf of President Barack Obama. GOP leaders say the new revenue would come from closing tax code deduction loopholes, but more conservative members worry this is a euphemism for tax increases. The event, to take place Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., will focus...

Republicans in Congress should be putting options on the table to raise government revenues as part of fiscal cliff negotiations, but raising taxes should not be one of those options, Newt Gingrich said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV. The GOP has given up on about 40 percent of the electorate in the last couple of elections, he also said, and needs to focus on inclusion of not just immigrants, but on states where Democrats automatically expect to win. Every time Democrats negotiate a budget deal that includes tax increases and spending cuts, taxes go up but in most...

THERE is a God! It passed! The Bush tax cuts have been extended two years for the upper bracketeers, of which I am a proud member, thank you very much. I’m the last person in the world I’d want to be beside, but I am beside myself! This is a life changer, I tell you. A life changer! To begin with, I was planning a trip to Cabo with my kids for Christmas vacation. We were going to fly coach, but now with the money I’m saving in taxes, I’m going to splurge and bump myself up to first class....

Sarah Palin harshly criticized the Obama-GOP tax compromise in an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, calling it a “lousy deal” and saying that lawmakers “can do better for the American public.” “It is better to wait until they [the new Congress] are seated,” Palin argued, “and get a good deal for the American public than to accept what I think is a lousy deal, because it creates a temporary economy with even more uncertainty for businesses and it does increase taxes.” Palin also condemned President Obama for his prior opposition to extending the tax cuts for those making $250,000 or...

In a rare interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Friday criticized the $858 billion tax cut bill that passed through Congress early this morning, calling the legislation "a lousy deal" that "creates a temporary economy with even more uncertainty for businesses and it does increase taxes." "I think it's a lousy deal and we can do better for the American people," Palin told GMA's Robin Roberts, in an interview in her Alaska home. The "new Congress is seated the first week of January," Palin continued. "It is better to wait until they are...

After liberals in the Democratic Caucus forced a several-hour delay on tax-cut legislation, the House approved the rules for debate on the legislation this evening and have now begun three hours of general debate. A final vote on the legislation is expected after midnight. Yesterday, the Senate approved the $858 billion tax plan, by a vote of 81 to 19. The measure (HR 4853), negotiated by President Obama and Senate Republicans, would allow tax cuts for all income levels to continue for two years and extend unemployment insurance benefits for jobless Americans for 13 months.

RUSH: The editors at the Wall Street Journal have a little blurb here today about what Harry Reid's trying to do. They're calling it: "Harry Reid's Holiday Jam -- What the Senate wants to pass while you're not paying attention. In the famous formulation often attributed to George Washington, the U.S. Senate is the saucer designed to cool the drink before it becomes law," let all the heat get out of the legislation so that reason and discourse can take place, so that the rash of emotions doesn't dictate legislation that's passed.

The Senate has committed a major blunder today. I mean besides the RINOs being stupid enough to go along with the Rats. They have passed a revenue bill that did not originate in the House. Article 1, Section 7 All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; Can it be any plainer? Is anyone planning on challenging the constitutionality of it?

South Dakota Sen. John Thune took a veiled swipe at Mitt Romney on the Senate floor Tuesday, saying it’s “easy” and “possibly even politically expedient to stand on the sidelines and criticize” the tax cut proposal backed by President Obama and GOP congressional leaders. “Inaction is not an option, and advocating against this proposal is no different than advocating for higher taxes,” Thune said in a Tuesday afternoon speech. Thune voted to advance the proposal in the Senate on Monday. Just a handful of Republicans, including possible 2012 candidate Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), opposed it. Thune did not mention Romney by...

During a White House summit in February, Republican Sen. John McCain ripped President Barack Obama for “unsavory” closed-door deal-making on health care legislation, saying that the “American people care about what we did and how we did it.” But now that Republicans and the White House are pushing through an $850 billion tax deal — a measure drafted behind closed doors — McCain and his GOP colleagues say there’s nothing wrong with the way the bill came together. “I didn’t see anything where they sat down with an individual senator and said, ‘Hey, what do you need to support this?’” McCain told...

A top House Democrat said Monday there's room to revise the contentious tax-cut package hammered out between the White House and Senate Republicans. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) predicted the House would ultimately pass a tax-cut bill this month, but not before Democratic critics have had a chance to amend certain language — particularly a 35 percent estate tax provision that exempts the first $5 million of estates. "There certainly seems to me to be some room for a change which may or may not be perceived by some to be significant," Hoyer told reporters at the National Press Club....

Democrats are predicting that a much-debated tax agreement will clear a crucial hurdle comfortably in the Senate on Monday, with a margin that they hope will add momentum to the deal in the House. But even with President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and a growing number of Senate Democrats backing the deal, House Democrats remained eager to test whether they could push Republicans to raise the proposed tax rate on estates. It wasn't clear how far House Democrats would push such a fight. If a bill isn't passed by the end of the year, tax rates are scheduled...

Many Republicans  are trumpeting the compromise worked out with the Obama administration this week as a victory -- after two years of class warfare, the administration accepted a deal in which all of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts will be extended for two years.  While the estate tax rate will rise from zero in 2010, GOP leaders are also pleased with the $5-million exemption and 35% rate on amounts above that, which will be in effect for two years.  Many liberals in Congress are steamed and are threatening to vote against the bill; they hate that the...

Ethanol is the Frankenfuel of the energy business, a subsidy-devouring monster that cannot be killed, no matter how great the political opposition. Farm-state senators have apparently succeeded in adding an extension of the ethanol tax credit, which is scheduled to expire at the end of the year, to the tax bill now working its way through Congress. While that news is disheartening enough, the wind-energy business — the electricity sector’s equivalent of the ethanol scam — may also be winning in its effort to garner more federal subsidies. It is pushing lame-duck legislators to extend a part of the stimulus...

In the midst of what seems to be a Democrat mutiny with President Obama over his tax deal with Republicans, Obama decided once again it’s time to pull out the ace up his sleeve –Bill Clinton. It is not uncommon for an organizational leader to seek help and advice. Sometimes a fresh, outside voice is better able to communicate an idea than the person who is responsible for it. In the case of the gridlock in Congress over Obama’s tax deal what better choice is there to unify Democrats than former President Clinton? After all, Clinton is still very popular...

The assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that President Obama's tax compromise with Republicans will come to the House floor, despite House Democrats vowing to block the deal in a heated caucus meeting last week. But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that, even though the White House has said that the deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts isn't open to negotiation, House Democrats are still going to make an effort to lop out at least one controversial provision: the estate tax. "This bill will come to the floor of the House in...

Bill’s cool and Barack’s an uptight prig. Cue the laughter. Bring on the guffaws. But wait — didn’t we already know that? It’s easy enough for conservatives, libertarians, et al, to gloat about Barack Obama’s recent petulant, child-like performances — at first unable to be even slightly gracious in compromise with Republicans on the tax bill and then, only a few days later, fleeing in panic when Clinton acted the real president, fielding questions with a relaxed authority so surpassing Obama’s it was almost comical. But there is a bigger reason not to gloat. We are stuck with this odd...

Tax bill deal becoming a Christmas tree of goodies by Nancy Thorner A test vote will happen this coming Monday, December 13, on the 74-page tax deal worked out between Democrat and Republican leadership. Sixty votes are needed in the Senate for debate to begin. This past Friday President Obama brought former President Bill Clinton into the White House to try to persuade wayward Democrat legislators to support the tax compromise.bill as the best deal Democrats could hope to get, where he upstaged Obama. But are Democrats really satisfied? Similar to what happened with Obamacare, much horse trading is going...

House Democrats have rejected the Senate’s negotiated tax compromise. In a rowdy meeting in which one Democratic Congressman said loudly “F— the President,” the House Democrats turned Nancy Reagan and just said no. Barney Frank still thinks it would pass, most likely with House Republicans. But the deal must now die. It must now be opposed by Republicans. Released now in print, the legislation is loaded up with budget busting pork of ridiculously absurd levels. The attachments to the compromise represent everything wrong with Washington. Many of them mirror the same porkulus spending in TARP. The GOP must now say...

The darnedest thing just happened on TV. Still happening. Obama takes Clinton to the White House press briefing room. Turns the podium over to Clinton, and leaves the room. If you didn't have the sound on your TV, it looked like Obama resigned and handed over to Clinton. Clinton still talking, setting up dueling filibuster with Bernie Sanders. Clinton at that podium is bad deja vu.