Tax Cut Deal

Since I’ve opined several times here on the federal budget, I should probably give my $0.02 on this week’s news.

I wouldn’t presume to know whether or not this is really the best compromise that Obama could have gotten. But I do think that it’s entirely appropriate for a number of Democrats to vote against it to make the Republicans put some votes on the table. In recent years, the Republicans have enjoyed forcing the Democrats to the heavy lifting and then turning those votes into attack ads during the next election. If they want to run as deficit hawks in 2012, then they should have some budget busting votes on the record. I particularly like Bernie Sanders’ plan to use the filibuster to require 60 votes.