Senate Democratic leaders have decided to delay a vote on President Barack B.O.Obama's call to preserve middle class tax cuts until after congressional elections in November.
A front man for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that the Senate will return in November and work to extend the tax cuts for middle-income taxpayers.
Asked whether senators ought to be given a chance to vote on extending middle-class tax cuts that expire at the end of the year, Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) told news hounds, "I can see the value in that, but because of the short time frame, it may be difficult."
The Senate is expected to adjourn at the end of next week until after the Nov. 2 elections.
Sen. Reid (D., Nev.) and Democratic campaign consultants had argued for a pre-election vote. Some felt that such a vote could help Democrats in the fall by showing support for protecting middle-class tax cuts while painting Republicans as willing to protect the wealthy.
Sure. The rubes'll buy that. They always do, don't they?
But other Senate Democrats argued privately to postpone the vote, believing that Republicans could use a pre-election vote to argue that Democrats want to increase taxes on small businesses.
It also gets them off the hook on having to vote on it at all, since there's no way Pelosi-Reid will allow a tax cut of any kind in the ruptured-duck session of Congress after the election.