Maine’s Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is taking his party forward again, voting on Friday against a sweeping social and environmental bill that President Joe Biden called another big step for the country.
After casting the only Democratic vote against the law, Golden blasted the bill, saying he would not support what he described as a $280 billion tax break for millionaires.
I don’t think people should accept things like this as the price of doing business,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.
This isn’t the first time that Golden has stood alone, at least among Democrats, in voting against one of Biden’s top priorities. He was the only Democrat in Congress to oppose the Biden administration’s $1.9 billion COVID-19 relief package in March, which he said was too big, too fast and contributed to spurring inflation. I’ll stand by that vote too, he said.
It’s part of a delicate political balancing act for Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who serves an increasingly conservative district in rural Maine. His district, which covers about four-fifths of Maines’ land area, voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020, even as it sent Congress golden for a second term. Republicans have made this a top target as they try to win back the House in next year’s election.
His decision to break ranks on Biden’s bill attracted some Twitterati on Friday. Some critics called him Dino, or Democrat in name only.”
Golden shrugged off the criticism. He said he was worried not for himself, but for the Democrats at large, if they wanted to capture their congressional majority in the midterm elections.
He said his opposition to Biden’s bill focused on state and local tax cuts, where the $10,000 threshold would be raised to $80,000. He said 88% of millionaires would get an average tax break of $17,000, while a little more than 1% would benefit those earning less than $100,000. Under the provision, these people would get $20 or $30 back, he said.
Golden said Democrats shouldn’t support this sort of thing.
He said that sometimes the truth hurts.
He said the good news is that the bill will be amended in the Senate. He said he hoped those talks would lead to a final version of the bill that he could support.
Golden noted that Biden has vowed for months that the overall proposal would be funded by wealthy people who don’t pay their share in taxes.
“We need to deliver on that,” he said.
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Rapid notification from Portland, Maine.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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