Passions ran high in the U.S. Senate's rare Saturday session, but the outcome was no surprise. U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken joined the vast majority of their Democratic colleagues in a futile attempt to break a Republican filibuster on the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. Democrats want to let the current rates expire for the rich, and keep them for everyone else. But two separate votes failed. One would have set the threshold for families earning $250,000 (similar to a version passed by the House Thursday), the other at $1 million. Democrats could only muster 53 of the 60 votes needed to end debate. This puts the ball squarely in the court of President Obama, whose courtiers are known to be negotiating behind the scenes with ascendant Republicans on some kind of an extension – likely involving everyone, and also likely conjoined with an extension of federal unemployment benefits, which also expire this month. Franken joined Senate Democratic leaders after the votes to lay down a marker on what they see at stake.
Franken invoked the image of a burly but teary-eyed union carpenter in Minnesota telling him recently that he hates being on unemployment, but it's either that or "my house." "We can lend a hand to those who simply can't get by without the help," Franken said, "or give $100,000 in average tax cuts to people making over a million dollars." In the end, it may be both, notwithstanding the efforts of the president's deficit reduction commission, which is finalizing its recommendations to Congress.
