This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 3, 2013 - WASHINGTON – Times Square was celebrating the New Year – and, in theory, the nation started toppling over “fiscal cliff” – when senators from Missouri and Illinois cast their votes for the last-minute deal that aims to avert the plunge.
“This deal isn’t perfect, but it achieves what’s most important here by protecting middle class families, and it’s a down payment toward a more realistic economic policy,” said U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
Also backing the last-minute deal, which the Senate passed in an overwhelming 89-8 vote, were U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who suffered a severe stroke last January, did not vote, but is expected to return to the Senate later this week.
"This bill permanently protects 99 percent of taxpayers from a tax increase, provides permanent tax relief and economic certainty for every American, and ensures the vast majority of farm families and small businesses in Missouri will not face the unfair death tax," Blunt said in a statement after the vote.
Durbin said, "This historic vote protects working families from an income tax increase and spares our economy from a devastating political disaster."
But Durbin, the Senate Democrats' assistant majority leader, noted that the deal would not become law unless approved by the U.S. House, which was scheduled to vote Tuesday.
“We now turn to the House and ask them to act with dispatch to prove our government can truly respond in a bipartisan way in the best interests of the people we represent,” Durbin said.
With only five Republicans and three Democrats voting against the bill, McCaskill said the compromise "represents a fact that too many in Washington seem to have forgotten: that compromise requires give-and-take. That’s a value Missouri voters strongly endorsed just a few weeks ago.”
McCaskill commented after taking part in a lengthy caucus of Senate Democrats in the Capitol, including some liberals who were skeptical about the deal. Vice President Joe Biden urged them to accept the compromise that he had negotiated with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
After a long New Year’s Eve of ups and downs, the media crowd outside the Capitol caucus room was so frenzied that a couple of journalists reported at one point that McCaskill had “stormed out” of the Democrats' session.
In reality, the exasperated senator explained in a Tweet: “Seriously? This is silly. I walked out of caucus to get my phone which I left in my car. Get a grip press.”
Later, McCaskill – who has opposed Senate pay increases – sent another Tweet saying that there was “good news” because the fiscal cliff deal “will STOP any pay increase for Congress. Thank goodness. Good reason to vote for it.”
Blunt, the fifth-ranking Senate Republican, also took part in separate GOP Senate caucuses and lined up behind McConnell. "Having worked hard to get these tax policies passed in 2001 and 2003, I'm glad that this vote protects middle-class families and small business owners from tax hikes," Blunt said.
In a Senate speech on Monday afternoon, Blunt had emphasized “the importance of certainty as it relates to our economy,” including the taxes paid by family farms and small businesses.
“I hope we can achieve those things in the coming hours, whatever it takes to create that level of certainty at the highest possible levels of how it impacts individuals and families will be important,” said Blunt.
In her statement early Tuesday, McCaskill said she was unhappy about the deadline-bending “cliffs” of Congress in tacking such difficult issues.
“Starting now, Congress has got to do better,” McCaskill said. “We have hard work ahead to address the budget deficit in the type of broader, balanced package I have long fought for.”
She added: “And we need to put an end to these eleventh-hour stalemates that do nothing but endanger our economy.”