While Republicans have the majority in the House, New York Democratic Rep. Steve Israel credited Democrats with injecting “adult supervision” and saving the nation from going off the fiscal cliff.
“There were elements of the bill that I did not like but at the end of the day, it was House Democrats who injected some adult supervision, some pragmatism, a sense of compromise and solutions. That’s what the country wants. And so I voted for it because falling off the cliff just isn’t an option,” Israel, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told CNN on Wednesday.
“I wish that the Republicans had produced more votes. The best they could do was about 85, 86 votes. So even though they have the majority in the House of Representatives, it was House Democrats who stopped us from going off this cliff.”
Israel added that he hopes Democrats “can continue to find some Republicans to work with towards a spirit of compromise, consensus and cooperation.”
Israel was asked what he did not like about the fiscal cliff bill which raises taxes on families making over $450,000 per year.
“I would have liked to see more deficit reduction. Now, we did — Democrats did join with Republicans on the Budget Control Act. We cut spending a trillion dollars in the past. So we’ve got that locked in. We now have $640 billion in revenues,” Israel said.
“I wish there was more deficit reductions. We just couldn’t — every time we tried to offer a compromise on broader deficit reduction to the Republicans, even giving them some of the things they wanted, they would move further away from us, up until the very last minute, literally up until 11 o’clock last night.”