BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's congressional delegation split in voting over the deal to prevent the so-called "fiscal cliff" of widespread tax increases and deep spending cuts, with most of the state's Republican members rejecting the compromise.
While Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and Republican Sen. David Vitter supported the legislation, a majority of the state's U.S. House delegation opposed it late Tuesday night in the final vote that sent the bill to President Barack Obama's desk.
The dean of Louisiana's House members, Rep. Rodney Alexander of Quitman, was the state's only Republican in the chamber to support the legislation. He joined with Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond in voting for the bill, amid concerns that without a deal, the tax hikes and spending reductions could send the nation's economy back into recession.
"I just thought it was what we needed to do," Alexander said Wednesday.
He said he didn't want to see taxes rise on anyone, but he noted that the Bush-era tax cuts already had technically expired when the House voted on the last-minute fiscal deal. So, Alexander said he was supporting a tax cut for most people around the country.
"What we were voting on was the largest tax decrease in the history of the nation. What we did was we lowered taxes for 98 percent of the American public, and we made them permanent," he said.
Louisiana's five other GOP House members — Reps. Charles Boustany, Bill Cassidy, John Fleming, Jeff Landry and Steve Scalise — voted against it, criticizing the measure of relying too heavily on tax increases to help shrink the federal deficit instead of using spending cuts. They joined many other Republican House members in opposing the measure.
The deal keeps income taxes from rising on the middle class and the poor, while allowing those taxes to increase on the rich and postponing decisions on more than $100 billion in defense and domestic spending cuts. A two-year, 2-percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax was allowed to expire across the board. No decision was made on raising the federal borrowing limit to allow the country to continue paying its bills, though the debt ceiling could be reached within a few months.
Fleming, of Minden, said the deal that passed enacts $10 of tax increases for every $1 of cuts and increases federal spending on unemployment benefits and other areas of government, while delaying needed decisions on changes to entitlement programs and the debt ceiling.
"I came to Washington four years ago on a promise to fight for less taxes, smaller government and economic freedom. The bill that I voted NO on last night will increase taxes, allowing for more wasteful government spending and for a larger and more intrusive federal government," Fleming said in a statement Wednesday.
Other members of Louisiana's congressional delegation echoed similar sentiments.
Boustany, of Lafayette, said the measure was a "fundamental failure to address one of the biggest problems facing our nation today: government spending."
Landry, a tea party favorite who lost his runoff bid to Boustany as the state lost a congressional seat, opposed the "fiscal cliff" deal as his last vote in the U.S. House. He said the legislation "only transported Americans to a higher cliff from which to fall," rather than solving fiscal problems.
JUNE 17 If anyone ever wonders why Saints fans hate Atlanta with a capital H, here's a good indication. Radio "professionals" at an Atlanta station created an entire segment around making fun of former Saints player Steve Gleason, who is now paralyzed by ALS. Listen, nobody's ever accused DJs of being rocket scientists. But how could someone think it is amusing to pretend to ask a man with a degenerative, fatal disease if he will be alive next week? The DJs have been fired, and are now whining about how gutless their former bosses are. Wow.
JUNE 18 Here's the latest from the Advocate on the fatal hit-and-run accident allegedly involving the president of the Livingston Parish School Board. He's accused by police of hitting a 21-year-old man on a highway early Sunday and driving away. The man died at a hospital later. On Monday, police seized the president's truck and towed it away. But he's available for board meetings: apparently a $500 bond is sufficient for this type of thing over in St. Helena Parish.
JUNE 18 Former broadcast journalist Griffin Scott has posted this plea on his blog for financial assistance from his readers. Scott, who says he was fired after he wrote something fairly innocuous (for Facebook) on his wall, is suing a media giant for his job back. He's framed himself as David going after a bloated media giant, and he's probably not far off.
JUNE 18 Here's a fairly absurd column posted on DIG Magazine about the completely absurd practice of naming killer storms. Tornadoes don't have names. Blizzards don't have names. But hurricanes do, and there's a big process to bestow them, Jacques Cormery writes. He's right about the crazy assemblage of names -- this year, there's everything from Tanya to Humberto -- and his idea that we don't waste good names on killer storms is a good one.
JUNE 17 Political columnist John Maginnis has some advice for Louisiana Republicans: grow up. After the schism that occurred in this past session - fiscal hawks teaming up with Democrats to spank the Republican "majority" and hand Gov. Jindal his, er, aspirations for continued solon control -- they need to figure out how to get along with each other, Maginnis writes.
JUNE 17 Here's the Picayune's obit story for Dorothy 'Miss Dot' Domilise, the lady who made poboys at the uptown restaurant that bears her name. Miss Dot moved to New Orleans during World War II, where she met and married her husband Sam. When she passed away Friday she was 90, and had spent more than 60 of those years working at the restaurant on Annunciation Street.
JUNE 17 This editorial in the Advocate speaks in favor of the consent decrees that have federal judges overseeing police operations and the sheriff's parish prison in New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu and Sheriff Gusman can't get along, so outside forces, like the Inspector General and the judges, are needed to make sure things run right, the editorial opines.
JUNE 18 Here's a post from Manny Schewitz on Forward Progressives that is good for a chuckle. Manny had an epiphany back in November, and is sharing it with us today: he believes that Fox "News" is killing the GOP by pandering to right wing nuts. Now, don't get it twisted: Manny's not broke up about it. He says he enjoys watching the downward spiral with a shot of whiskey and "a schadenfreude chaser."
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