That expiration is wrapped tighter than John Lithgow in his last appearance on Dexter.
First of all, a coherent bill extending the cuts has to pass in the House, which could happen, but they're so full of shit that I doubt they can even do that right.
Then, it has to pass in the Senate, which will never happen. So the President probably won't get a bill to veto.
But he couldn't have known that when he made his agreement two years ago, so he snookered the Republicans into a very carefully chosen time frame for expiration. It expires before his first term as President ends.
So if the Senate went Republican, the President would still be there to veto an extension.
If the President lost his bid for re-election, and the Senate went Republican, he would still be there to veto an extension.
And in case he broke both his hands playing basketball and couldn't sign a veto, he set the cuts to expire on a Friday in January just as Congress goes into a recess, so that he can pocket veto it without a signature.
That's not to say that the President wished the tax cuts for the middle class to expire. Democrats in the Senate passed such a measure with scarcely a Republican vote, but the Republican House blocked it. They don't give a shit about the middle class, except as a hostage.
But the President really, really wants the tax cuts for the wealthy to expire, so I don't expect him to bother to negotiate much. We may send a quick extension for the middle class up the flagpole just after the new Congress convenes, so that we can tack all of the Republicans with the onus of raising our taxes in the next elections, and if they're smart they'll take the offer.
But they're not smart, so I don't think we will have to worry about them doing the right thing.
= new reply since forum marked as read
