Sen. Bernie Sanders filibusters Obama tax deal with GOP
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is now in his sixth hour on the Senate floor criticizing President Obama's tax cut deal with Republicans.
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, had vowed to do anything he could to block the deal, including a filibuster. We're checking with his office to see how long he plans to talk.
The Senate vote is scheduled for Monday.
Sanders has been outspoken that the $858 billion deal Obama reached with congressional Republicans gives too much away to the wealthy.
Obama says the tax deal is needed to stimulate the economy. He had campaigned on tax cuts for the middle class. But the deal extends for two years the Bush-era tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year, for all income levels. Many Democrats, especially liberals in the House, have pushed back because the deal includes families earning more than $250,000 in taxable income.
Sanders has been speaking to a mostly empty Senate chamber. He's now making the point that if the tax breaks are extended for two years, there is a likelihood they could be extended permanently. At one point, he was reading railroad timetables.
Occasionally, he's been joined on the Senate floor by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Mary Landrieu, D-La. Landrieu called the deal "unconscionable" and vowed if -- and that's a big if -- she votes for the plan she would make noise about it first.
An actual filibuster -- where a lawmaker talks on and on -- is kind of a rare thing in Congress these days. Senate Historian Donald Ritchie notes that a real filibuster is when a senator gets up in the chamber and talks forever to delay a vote on an issue.
But these days people use the word "filibuster" whenever an issue hits a snag -- such as with the repeal of the policy on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military -- even though a senator isn't talking non-stop.
The Senate has pulled all-nighters, such as in 2007 over Iraq war policy.
Sanders still has a long way to go to break the record for the Senate's longest speech. That was set by Strom Thurmond in 1957: 24 hours, 18 minutes talking in opposition to a civil rights bill.
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