U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) is critical of a tax agreement President Barack Obama struck yesterday with Republicans, according to a report in The Hill.
Obama’s agreement would extend for two years the Bush tax cuts for all earners.
Lautenberg told The Hill that the president paid a “ransom” to get a deal with Republicans.
“I don’t like what I see because it looks like there was a ransom paid with a kind of ‘Let them eat cake’ attitude,” said Lautenberg, who noted the media has characterized another piece of the deal – the 13-month extension of unemployment benefits – “as an afterthought to the two-year extension of the Bush tax rates.”
The senator said he believes “this shows that the tax cuts for the wealthy were a bigger prize in the negotiations than extended unemployment insurance,” according to The Hill.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/132425-white-house-tax-deal-meets-with-senate-dem-backlash
