Yesterday, I wondered if Senate gridlock might be enough to keep the Bush tax cuts from being extended. Now the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Chuck Marr gives me some reason to worry:
Last week, 42 senators voted for a proposal by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) to permanently extend all of the Bush income tax rate cuts while cutting programs to pay for it (though they didn’t specify which ones). Supporters included all Senate Republicans except Senator George Voinovich, plus two Democrats — Senators Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln ... 41 senators have the power to advance their priorities by threatening a filibuster and, on a critical fiscal decision, 42 senators have now signaled that extending the high-income tax cuts is one of their priorities.
Two things: I don't think this was a whipped vote, and perhaps Harry Reid can convince Lincoln or Nelson to come back across the aisle. In fact, he'll probably have to. Second, voting for "unspecified" program cuts to fund tax breaks is pretty easy, but start specifying what you're eliminating funding for, and the vote becomes much harder -- especially if it includes cuts to popular entitlements programs like Social Security, which DeMint apparently intends. So while this offers a warning about what these senators' preferences are, you have to hope that once they face either cutting programs that benefit the middle class to fund tax cuts for the rich or just blowing up the deficit to the same end, they'll reconsider.
-- Tim Fernholz
