Gosh, just this morning, it was all hand holding and Kum ba ya in DC. Okay, maybe not so much. But House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) did signal that he would likely support President Barack Obama’s plan to extend tax cuts for those families making less than $250,000. It clearly wasn’t his preference but he claimed that he would consider a yes vote in order to get the tax bill out of limbo.
Those crazy kids in the House and their efforts to get something (anything done). The Senate has other plans. Senate GOP leaders turned around and made it clear that that would not support any such proposal. Specifically, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) said that the plan was dead in the water:
Just before the recess we had a meeting and we discussed this, and every Republican was absolutely supportive of the idea that there shouldn’t be any increases in taxes.
His sentiment was shared by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who declined to comment publicly (read: they’re working on it) as to whether the GOP would filibuster any proposal that did not include extending the Bush tax cuts to all income tax brackets.
Always the voice of reason (*cough, cough*), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) also chimed in today that he thought the cuts should be extended for all taxpayers. He did, however, like Boehner, indicate that he would not refuse a vote to extend tax cuts to the middle class if tax cuts for the top earners were not included.
And just like that, we’re back to where we started.
Want to see how long it goes. This is good news that will be no increase in Tax for now.