Senate Dems Push Tax Plan Forward
The Hill reports:
Senate Democrats are moving full speed ahead with a package to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years, despite a vote by House Democrats earlier Thursday expressing strong disapproval of the proposal.
House Democrats voted by voice vote during a private meeting to reject the extension of tax cuts unless substantial changes were made to the package, but the gesture seemed to have little impact in the Senate.
“Basically the White House wrote this bill with the Republican leadership. There are some other provisions that senators want but essentially the four corners of the agreement are what was negotiated between the White House and Sen. McConnell — We’ll see. Very little might be added,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), in reference to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).
When asked about the impact of the House Democratic vote, Baucus said “everything has an impact” and compared it to a tree falling in the forest.
But Baucus’s metaphor calls into question just how much of an impact, since the saying asks: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Senators suggested that the House meeting didn’t make much noise across the Capitol, as many of them were only vaguely aware of it.
“I just sort of heard about it third-hand,” said Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.).
Senators said they expected to receive a draft of the package, which would extend almost all of the Bush tax cuts by two years and federal unemployment benefits for 13 months, by Thursday evening.
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