Carl Hulse
-- It was a little-noted vote on an unremarkable bill, but it spoke volumes about the current state of Congress.
The House was considering a measure to give tax advantages to small businesses, debating the sort of imperfect but well-intentioned legislation that would have previously breezed through since it was aimed at a favored constituency of both parties and provided tangible benefits in a rocky economy. And it was paid for.
But the final vote of 247-170 broke almost strictly along party lines, with only five Republicans voting for the measure even though a senior Republican responsible for tax issues acknowledged that there were positive aspects to the bill. Instead, Republicans offered an alternative that would have repealed a central element of the new health care law, a proposal that had zero chance of passing but made for a good political attack.
The outcome left Rep. Sander Levin, Democrat of Michigan, who is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, scolding his colleagues across the aisle. "You say you agree with these provisions, but then you're going to vote no," he said as the floor fight wrapped up. "You just don't apparently want to be caught being bipartisan. It's going to blur the political message."
The approach of the midterm elections, the angry state of the electorate and intense political positioning have deepened partisan divisions in Congress to the point that it is becoming nearly impossible to lure lawmakers across the aisle.
The phenomenon has shown itself in the Senate as well in the current impasse over a package of tax breaks and safety-net spending. Extending unemployment benefits in times of economic duress used to be a popular vote, but not one Republican was willing to join Democrats on Thursday to break a filibuster holding up added jobless pay.
In his weekly address Saturday, President Barack Obama made note of the impasse, saying he was "disappointed this week to see a dreary and familiar politics get in the way of our ability to move forward on a series of critical issues that have a direct impact on people's lives."
Addressing the unwillingness of Republicans to allow a vote on extending jobless benefits, Obama said that "if this obstruction continues, unemployed Americans will see their benefits stop."
"Teachers and firefighters will lose their jobs. Families will pay more for their first home."
He added: "I know the political season is upon us in Washington. But gridlock as a political strategy is destructive to the country."
Senate Republicans say they want to keep the $40 billion cost of extending jobless benefits from being added to the deficit. But the deficit was not the issue on the small-business measure in the House. Republicans said it came up short despite what they conceded were worthwhile features.
"While the tax relief in here is welcome, it's not enough," said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the senior Republican on the Ways and Means Committee.
Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware, one of the five Republicans to back the tax plan and one of just three to vote for a small-business loan program a few days later, said the gulf between the parties had grown so wide that most Republicans simply refused to vote for any Democratic legislation.
"It is just the politics of the time," said Castle, who is running for the Senate. "We are just into a mode where there is a lot of Republican resistance to voting for anything the Democrats are for or the White House is for. I think part of it is where the polling is and how things seem to be going from a political point of view. It is an election year."
Castle said that the hardening divisions were not good for the nation's future and that it was not just Republicans who needed to give some thought to their approach, but Democrats as well.
Other Republicans say they are not dismissing Democratic initiatives out of hand; they say that the Democratic view of how to govern is simply wrongheaded and that they will not be a part of it.
"I realize my colleagues on the other side of the aisle sometimes can't understand why Republicans vote against their ill-conceived legislation," said Rep. Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina. "It is really because we have a very different philosophy about what makes this country successful."
She said that philosophy was not "taking money from hardworking taxpayers," funneling it through the bureaucracy and returning some to small businesses.
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