Expect a compromise plan that extends all of the Bush Tax Cuts temporarily. That was the word on the Sunday talk shows this past weekend, and that’s the word today.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The first debate of the 2012 presidential election cycle will occur Tuesday, and taxes will be the subject.
That’s not how President Barack Obama’s meeting with Republican congressional leaders will be advertised, but that will be the reality when they sit down to discuss what to do with the Bush-era tax cuts, which expire at year’s end if Congress and the president don’t agree to extend some or all of them.
It’s quite possible that, in the end, the tax cuts simply will be extended for everyone temporarily, punting the debate into next year and beyond.
Meanwhile, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)- who would play a critical role in the tax debate as Chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee- is hoping to extend unemployment benefits.
The bill, which isn’t paid for, is estimated to cost about $56.4 billion, slightly below other estimates of between $60 billion and $65 billion, or about $5 billion a month. The Baucus bill would cost about $4.33 billion per month.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) on Monday stuck with his argument that the bill should be paid for, while also expressing concern about the proposed length.
“I think that there’s a point in which, and I don’t think it’s now, that you just can’t keep extending,” Nelson told The Hill. “At some point, you can’t keep adding to the debt.”