House approves GOP tax bill – without Connecticut support

In a largely symbolic vote, the House approved a Republican plan Wednesday to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts for another year.

Connecticut’s Democratic House members voted unanimously against the plan, which prevailed on a 256-171 vote. But it received support from 19 other Democrats.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3^rd District, and other Democrats seized on the Republican plan’s failure to extend a child tax credit that was included in President Obama’s stimulus plan, while extending a tax cut for wealthy Americans.

“This Reverse Robin Hood tax plan has to stop,” DeLauro said.

The Senate, with its Democratic majority, last month approved a bill that would raise tax rates on income above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples — a move that would affect the top 2 percent of earners.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., voted against the bill, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., voted for it.

The tax votes have not done anything to bring Congress closer to a deal on the Bush-era tax cuts, set to expire at the end of the year.

But they put lawmakers on record on the issue of taxes in an election year.