Michael Bennet Fence-Sitting on Investor Tax Increase, Unemployment Benefit Legislative Scheme

The appointed U.S. Senator Michael Bennet appears to be wavering again. Maybe he needs to hear from constituents. Colorado’s junior senator is on the fence about an egregious attempt by Congress to impose what the Wall Street Journal aptly describes as “the most punitive tax rates on investment income in recent American history.” Steve Forbes clearly explains how destructive the proposal would be to the U.S. economy.

But don’t let that stop the Democratic steamroller in Congress. Better known as the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, the scheme is to combine the economic poison with an unrelated provision to extend jobless benefits to workers already strung out by the Obama administration’s campaign against the private sector economy.

In the House, Nancy Pelosi lost a lot of Democratic defectors to squeeze the combined bill through by a 215-204 margin. Now, the fate of the Act lies with a handful of squishy senators, including our own Michael Bennet. Sixty votes are needed to shoehorn HR 4213 through, rather than let Congress decide the two major issues separately. Will Bennet once again aid and abet the D.C. Democratic machine? Will he choose to exploit Colorado’s working families in order to stick it to Colorado investors — in some cases the very same people?

Congressional Quarterly reports that it will be tricky for Harry Reid and crew to pull this one off. Perhaps. But in any case, it’s very difficult to see how they could do it without a vote from Michael Bennet.

Ben DeGrow is a Contributing Author at People’s Press Collective, Your Source for Colorado Politics