House Dems stew over Obama's handling of tax deal -

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House Dems stew over Obama's handling of tax deal
Rep. Elijah Cummings,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a Maryland Democrat who has strongly supported Obama and who won re-election last month,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], told MSNBC the chief House representative "wasn't even in the room, and we did feel left out" during the key tax-cut negotiations.
Obama says GOP lawmakers held middle-class Americans hostage by vowing to tie up Congress — and thereby allowing everyone's income tax rates to rise on Jan. 1 — unless he met their demands to extend tax cuts for the wealthy for another two years.
"We left that meeting with the White House indicating that they had not yet cut final details," Van Hollen said in an interview. Referring to the estate tax provisions, he said,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], "Republicans are gloating because they got a windfall of $25 billion for the wealthiest estates." That would be added to the deficit, he noted.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told the Associated Press,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], "We have been talking to the Democratic leadership since prior to the announcement and will continue to work closely with them to ensure that this important package is passed into law so the middle class doesn't face a tax increase."