Tim Fernholz on why Congress can’t afford to kick the can of Bush’s tax cuts down the road again:
President Barack Obama — who promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 — and congressional Democrats generally favor keeping the more expensive cuts targeted at the middle class while nixing those affecting the upper brackets. Republicans think making all the cuts permanent is the right path, and their vociferous arguments may be swaying moderate Democrats like Evan Bayh and Ben Nelson, who talk a good game on deficit reduction but fear being labeled as tax-raisers. That dynamic could lead to a kick-the-can-down-the-road mentality that extends all the tax cuts for another year or two before taking up the issue again.