The Sanders Amendment

By a vote of 43 to 57, the Senate refused to amend the tax break deal to strip out the tax breaks for the wealthy and more.

December 15, 2010

The Senate on Wednesday resumed consideration of a tax deal between the White House and congressional Republicans to extend tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and undermine Social Security. Sen. Bernie Sanders has questioned why the White House cut such a bad deal, one that jettisoned President Obama's pledge not to extend tax breaks for families with incomes of more than $250,000.  Sanders offered his own amendment.  "It is a significant improvement over the agreement stuck by the president and congressional leadership," he told colleagues. It would  let Bush-era tax breaks for the top 2 percent expire on schedule.  Over the long-term, he would devote half of the revenue generated by the amendment to reduce the deficit. The other half would be invest in our nation's crumbling infrastructure.  The Sanders alternative, set for a Senate vote this afternoon, would make other significant changes.

The Sanders amendment would replace the payroll tax holiday with a one year extension of the Make Work Pay Credit -- a proposal that will provide more tax relief to those who need it most while not threatening the solvency of the Social Security trust fund.

The Sanders amendment would strike the estate tax proposal that would exempt all but the richest estates and insert the 2009 estate tax rates for two years (exempting the first $3.5 million of an estate from taxation and imposing a 45 percent estate tax rate on the value of estates above $3.5 million).

The Sanders amendment also would provide a $250 COLA for over 57 million American senior citizens, veterans and persons with disabilities.  Without this provision, senior citizens will be going without a cost of living increase for 2 years in a row at a time when the prices they pay for prescription drug and health care are soaring. 

The Sanders amendment would keep all of the rest of the provisions included in the underlying bill in place including:

• An extension of middle class tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans;
• An extension of unemployment insurance for 13 months; and
• An extension of the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and college e tax credit expansions.