McConnell pulls back from filibuster on Senate tax-cut vote

Source: WaPo

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday dropped his threat to filibuster a proposal to preserve tax cuts solely for the middle class, a move aimed at forcing vulnerable Democrats to declare their support for President Obama’s plan to eliminate the tax breaks for the nation’s wealthiest households.

The decision by McConnell (R-Ky.) means the Senate will vote Wednesday afternoon on two measures: the Democratic plan to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, which are set to expire in January, on income under $250,000 a year; and a competing Republican proposal to extend the cuts for households at all income levels.

The Republican measure is likely to fail. But despite the apparent opposition of at least two of their 53 party allies, Democrats believe they can muster the 50 votes necessary to push the bill through the Senate and send it over to the Republican-controlled House.

The GOP-controlled House is virtually certain to kill the bill, but Democrats believe a victory in the Senate would give them additional leverage after the election, when Congress will have less than two months to decide how to handle the expiring Bush tax cuts. Republicans, meanwhile, predict that a Democratic win would require a number of weak reelection candidates to fall on their swords, voting to raise taxes on the wealthy and to sharply increase the estate tax less than four months before the Nov. 6 ballot.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/mcconnell-pulls-back-from-filibuster-on-senate-tax-cut-vote/2012/07/25/gJQAxGpL9W_story.html