Along with more than half of
Louisiana’s congressional delegation, Rep. Charles Boustany,
R-Lafayette, voted against the bipartisan
deal that would keep the country from going over the so-called
“fiscal cliff” of major tax increases and spending cuts.
“Washington voted to raise income tax
rates for the first time in over two decades,” Boustany said in a news
release. “I voted
against this bill due to its fundamental failure to address one of
the biggest problems facing our nation today: government
spending.”
While both Sens. Mary Landrieu, a
Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican, supported the legislation,
five of the seven state’s
U.S. House delegation opposed it Tuesday night in the final vote
that sent the bill to President Barack Obama to become law.
Reps. Rodney Alexander, a Republican,
and Cedric Richmond, a Democrat, were the state’s only supporters of the
legislation
in the House, concerned that without it the country would slip
back into a recession. Boustany and the four other House Republicans
— Reps. Bill Cassidy, John Fleming, Jeff Landry and Steve Scalise
— voted against it, slamming the idea of counting on tax
increases to help rein in the federal deficit rather than spending
cuts.
“President Obama promised to cut
deficits in half by the end of his first term in office,” Boustany said.
“With 18 days remaining
in his first term, this bill adds $4 trillion in new deficit
spending. Coupled with the $16 trillion national debt, the American
Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 provides a recipe for disaster.”
Boustany said “he promised to not raise taxes” and he intended to do “everything possible to keep that promise.”
But Vitter, who usually votes with Republicans, was in favor of the legislation, stating that it was a “much better tax outcome
under Obama” than he would have guessed.
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.
“It preserves the Bush tax cuts for 99 percent of Americans, with good policy on the death tax, dividends and capital gains,
so important to small business,” Vitter said in a news release. “Just as importantly, it makes it all permanent, which we
could never do before. But of course we still must pass real and dramatic spending reform. For me, that’s a non-negotiable
requirement of all budget or debt limit bills, due around March 1.”
Sen. Mary Landrieu touted the legislation which first passed the Senate with an 89-9 vote before going to the House.
“This legislation will protect more
than 98 percent of Louisianians from an income tax increase, preserve
key tax credits
for 576,000 Louisiana families with children and 158,000 families
to help pay for higher education, and maintain the Earned
Income Tax Credit,” Landrieu said in a news release. “In addition,
we worked hard to extend the estate tax in a reasonable
way that protects small businesses and farmers.”
Landrieu said while the compromise did not do as much as she had hoped to reduce the deficit, she remains committed to finding
“a balanced approach to deficit reduction that includes both spending cuts and new revenues.”
Stocks soared Wednesday in response to avoiding the fiscal cliff — the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 308 points, or
2.4 percent.
• The Associated Press contributed to this report.