Delay likely on tax cuts

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

A growing number of Senate Democrats say they probably won’t consider President Barack Obama’s call to preserve middle-class tax cuts until after voters choose their congressmen and senators Nov. 2.

“The reality is we are not going to pass what needs to be passed to change this either in the Senate or in the House before the election,” said the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, on Thursday.

Even debating the issue in such a politically charged atmosphere is in question, said a second Democrat.

“The climate is not conducive to getting much done before the election,” said Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware. “If I were a betting man, I would say we deal with them” later in the fall.

A last-minute, or lame duck, session of the House and Senate is set to begin Nov. 15 with a few new faces and far different political outlook. Democrats still will hold the majority through the end of the year, however. House and Senate Democratic officials believe the timing would make it easier to extend the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire in January.

But who gets a break on their tax bill — everyone, or just what Obama calls the middle class — likely would still be the subject of heated debate.

Enacted in 2001 and 2003 under President George W. Bush, they were the most-sweeping tax cuts in a generation. If Congress takes no action, taxpayers at every income level face significant tax increases next year. Few in Congress support that option, but any plan to avoid widespread tax increases next year would need bipartisan support in the Senate, and that has been hard to come by this year.