Pelosi: “It’s about stopping the GOP”

Forget about her promise of “debate.” Look at her history.

In 2007, Pelosi became Speaker with a majority in the House. Then, as now, the Republicans maintained a narrow majority in the Senate. However, from late 2009 to January 2011, the Dems had a majority that did not require any cooperation from the Republicans, in both the House and Senate.

Harry Reed shoved a crude, early version of Obamacare through the Senate on Christmas Eve, 2009. Pelosi’s House Democrats, with 220 votes, had substituted the language in another Bill, HR 3590, the “Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009,” in order to bypass the usual process. Senate Dems had 60 votes (including the two “Independents” Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman, Dems-in-all-but-name who caucused with the Dems), so no need for bipartisanship.

This was the form about which Pelosi infamously said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” because the actual leviathan of a Bill was worked out in conference between House and Senate members in early 2010, without a single Republican vote.

That law included huge tax increases, in addition to the individual mandate that required everyone to buy health insurance:

• Medicare tax: from 1.45% to 2.35%
• Top income bracket from 35% to 39.5%
• Top income payroll tax from 37.4% to 52.2%
• Capital gains tax from 15% to 28%
• Dividend tax from 15% to 39.6%
• Estate (“Death”) tax 0% to 55%
• A new 3.5% Real Estate Transaction tax, imposed even when you sell your home, and the Net Investment tax of 3.8% were created.

Some of these taxes were decreased or removed by the recent tax cuts, the changes are all temporary , some changes won’t take effect this year and the Dems have promised to reopen the tax debate, presumably to increase taxes again.

At least with the Republican President and Senate majority, Pelosi’s abuses – hopefully – won’t result in renewed taxes in the next two years.