On Wednesday, Senate Democrats will offer their Republican counterparts a choice: agree to debate legislation extending the Bush tax cuts for income up to $250,000 for one year, or prove that you’re holding tax cuts for everybody hostage to tax cuts benefiting the very wealthiest Americans alone.
It’s Congressional maneuvering for the right to control political messaging, but this particular political message is central to the election-year debate over tax equity and the extent to which the federal government should provide and pay for domestic projects from infrastructure to safety net programs that help the elderly and poor.
The outcome of the vote is in little doubt.
On multiple occasions, Republicans have refused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s request to hold sequential votes — one to extend all the Bush tax cuts for a year; one to pass the Democrats’ plan — on a majority-rules basis.
Faced with this implicit filibuster threat, Reid’s challenge is to convince at least 50 members of his 53-member caucus to vote to extend middle-income tax cuts, and other tax benefits targeted at middle class voters. He’s already signaled he’s rounded them up. That won’t be enough to force a floor debate on the issue — but it gives Democrats a specific vote they can point voters to and validate their election-year argument that Republicans are so committed to preserving low marginal tax rates for wealthy Americans that they’d rather let everyone’s taxes go up instead.
If that's the way the Village reports it, sure. I'm betting we'll all see headlines "Senate blocks tax cut bill" rather than "REPUBLICANS block tax cut bill" if even one Democrat votes against it, which of course will happen.
We'll see very soon.
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