Newly elected House Democrats characterize budget as tax hike

Two newly elected conservative Democrats have called the Democratic budget a tax increase on the middle class, giving even more election-year ammunition to grateful House Republicans.

Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Don Cazayoux (D-La.), who both won election earlier this year in districts held for years by the GOP, explained their votes against the Democratic budget as stands against tax increases on middle-class voters.

{mosads}“I can’t support a budget, from either party, that raises taxes on the middle class,” Foster said in a statement posted on his website. “I campaigned on a platform of middle-class tax relief, and I was elected to Washington to bring about change. When asked to choose between my party and the people I represent, I will choose the families of the 14th district every single time.”

Cazayoux struck a very similar tone.

“I voted against [the budget] because it allows tax cuts to expire in 2010, raising taxes on most American taxpayers,” he said in a statement given to The Hill. “I promised the people of the 6th district of Louisiana to vote with my party when they are right, and vote against them when they are wrong. My vote today was the right vote for my constituents.”

Neither GOP nor Democratic leadership aides expressed much surprise last week when Foster and Cazayoux joined Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) — another recent special-election winner from a Republican district — and 11 other Democrats as well as all voting Republicans in voting against the budget resolution ironed out between House and Senate Democrats. In fact, a senior Democratic aide said the caucus was never counting on those votes to begin with, knowing they would be difficult ones for new members from conservative districts to cast.

Republicans seized on those statements to put Democrats on the defensive on Monday, arguing they showed the GOP was right all along in arguing that by allowing some of President Bush’s tax cuts to expire in 2010 and 2011 as scheduled, the budget increased taxes. Hours before the 214-210 vote, Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.) said the move, intended to ensure the budget resolution was balanced, would constitute the “largest tax increase in American history.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Budget Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) were just as adamant that their budget plan did not raise taxes. They point out the budget resolution did not contain any language raising taxes, a claim outside groups have backed up.

“This year’s budget plan does not include a tax increase. It actually calls for a $340 billion reduction in revenues,” Pelosi said on the House floor Thursday afternoon. “The problem that our friends on the Republican side have is that these tax cuts are for the middle class, not just for their friends in the upper 1 percent bracket.”

But on Monday both the policy and campaign arms of the House GOP called on Pelosi to explain why some Democrats were now saying just the opposite.

“Does Speaker Pelosi agree with Congressman Foster that the Democrat budget raises taxes? That’s a fair question for the Speaker, I think,” said GOP conference spokesman Brian Schubert.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) quickly followed suit. “According to Bill Foster’s own words, Nancy Pelosi and her liberal allies are attempting to not-so-secretly lay the groundwork for a reinstatement of the marriage penalty and a massive tax hike at the expense of middle-class Americans,” said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain.

For their part, Democrats downplayed the significance of the rhetoric emanating from both the GOP and their own caucus as they sought to move on to other battles.

“Congressman Cazayoux and Foster vote their own districts,” said a senior Democratic leadership aide.