Snowe expresses frustrations over extenders debate

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) today explained to reporters how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apparently did not follow through on a promise he made to her concerning stripping some tax provisions from the so-called tax extenders bill. 

Snowe had concerns over how the bill taxed S corporations and how it levied retroactive taxes on certain organizations. According to her, Reid promised to take those measures out of the bill, but when the third iteration of the package was presented to her those modifications were not made. 

"They told me it was going to be taken out and then last night, subsequently, they inserted it back in," she said, adding that she "spent countless hours" negotiating with Senate Democratic leaders trying to modify the bill so that she could support it.

 She instructed Democrats to move a stand alone doc fix that was paid for and extend unemployment insurance as its own bill. 

"I would vote for it," she said. "Let's work on the other issues. The issues I have concerns about was the S corp and retroactive tax increases, and paying for FMAP with stimulus." 

Senate leaders apparently agreed to make those changes. However, on Wednesday night, Snowe requested to see the legislative changes in writing, which never happened.  

"Next thing I know, we got a call from the Chairman's [Baucus] staff saying, 'sorry, there were members of their Caucus who would not accept removing the retroactivity provision and they wanted the S corp provision reinserted," Snowe said. "So that's where it was left. That's the story."

Crossposted from On The Money.