Pelosi delays floor vote on tax extensions

Facing a Blue Dog revolt, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) delayed the floor vote on a bill extending several individual and business tax breaks, which had been due Friday. 

The centrist Democrats object to several things — to how quickly the bill was being brought up, to the designation of unpaid-for provisions as emergency measures and to the lack of a price tag from the Congressional Budget Office.

Brushing aside the notion that she lacked the support to pass the bill, Pelosi said its timing would be announced after Thursday afternoon’s caucus meeting.
 
{mosads}”The delay is really more about transparency and wanting to have it up on the Web,” Pelosi said. “It’s not about votes, it’s about finishing the job.”
 
One deal struck to ease passage of the bill — the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act — is a compromise on taxing “carried interest,” the controversial way hedge fund managers are paid.
 
Another compromise delays cuts in payments to Medicare doctors for the next three years, and bumps up their remuneration in the meantime.
 
Pelosi said Democrats are likely to wait until Tuesday at the earliest to bring the bill to the floor. The text was released Thursday morning after House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) agreed on its contents.
 
“A whip notice has already been sent out on a bill we hadn’t seen, and that hasn’t been scored,” said a Democratic aide. “How are you going to ask the Blue Dogs to decide how they’re going to vote on a bill that doesn’t have a CBO score?”
 
Jay Heflin contributed to this story.