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March 11, 2004
Senate vs. Bush
A surprising development in the Senate today, where a rule that requires 60 Senate votes to approve any new tax cuts over the next 5 years was narrowly passed. Bush has made it clear that he wants Congress to make his tax cuts permanent, but Democrats generally want to get rid of the tax cuts (or at least get rid of the tax cuts for rich people) and fiscally responsible Republicans are freaking out over our monumentally huge deficit. Good old Senator Feingold from Wisconsin sponsored the budget amendment. Let's look at the other key players in this vote: the Republicans who approved the required 60 Senate votes include John McCain and Maine's two Republican Senators. The one Democrat that voted against the amendment was everybody's favorite wolf in sheep's clothing, Zell Miller from Georgia (but he's retiring this year, anyway).
What this vote suggests for the immediate future is that the Senate does not trust Bush to act responsibly, and it is willing to neutralize the Republican majority in order to keep him from continuing to cut taxes. However, what if Kerry wins the election this year? What if the Senate switches to a Democratic majority later this year? Either way, only leaders who wants to institute more tax cuts will be hampered by this new rule. If we can get more conservatives who don't like the state of our deficit to start voting against Bush, we'll continue to make this kind of progress.
