Over at TPM, Brian Butler has a piece up from this afternoon in which Chuck Schumer says that he is willing to keep fighting to decouple tax cuts for the middle-class and the wealthy, even if it means all tax cuts expire and the battle carries over into 2011.
According to the story, Schumer said a "large number" of Democrats are willing to fight alongside him in such a battle. He didn't provide any specific numbers or names, though there were a few Democratic senators standing with him who were willing to throw their names out there as well.
In response to a question from TPM, Schumer acknowledged, "there are lots of people in our caucus who do have that appetite. There are some who don't."
As he said that, several members joining him on stage -- Mark Begich (D-AK), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Al Franken (D-MN), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) -- nodded in agreement.
Surprising to see Begich in that crowd, but it hints that it might be more than the usual suspects. I'm doubtful that this will be the ultimate route that is taken, but it is nice to see some in the Senate willing to put their necks out there in the name of ending tax cuts for the wealthy. We'll have to see if this gets any momentum in the next couple days.
Schumer declined to speculate whether Democrats would ultimately take that path. And just minutes earlier, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on the Senate floor that he hopes to have the tax cut issue resolved by Friday, December 17 when, he hopes, the Senate adjourns until next year. But Schumer's willingness to float the possibility suggests a great deal of unease in the party about the idea of compromising with the Republicans on conservative terms, and extending all the Bush tax cuts temporarily.
There's no reason to adjourn the Senate until business is taken care of. There's still START, unemployment benefits, DADT, and other issues as well. And we've got the likes of John Kyl trying to hold up everything else until he gets his tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. December 17th seems highly optimistic.
In any event, I am curious as to the extent of this "great deal of unease," and it would be wonderful to have other senators who feel this unease to step forward and air their concerns. Showing some backbone for a change is only going to help in the ultimate negotiations, if negotiations are to actually take place.
I use "negotiations" generously here, as it's more of a situation of political terrorists seeing what they can get away with. Rather than letting those terrorists get away with their attempts to put in place a borrow-and-bailout program for the upper 1%, how about putting a stop to this extortion and doing what's right?