Not many dictators or military juntas willingly give up power. Will Burma’s regime prove the exception? That was the ever-present though mostly unspoken question as President Thein Sein toured Washington, D.C., this week.There’s been a lot of chatter about Sen. Patty Murray’s big speech in which she claimed that Democrats hold the leverage in the coming “fiscal cliff” talks over the Bush tax cuts and that they should be prepared to let all the tax cuts expire if necessary to force the GOP’s hand.
The idea is that if all the cuts expire, Democrats can renew just the middle-class cuts, and dare Republicans to vote against it.
The Obama/Democratic proposal would cut taxes on all income up to $250,000, even that enjoyed by the “job creators” and “small-businesspeople” who make more than that. Republicans won’t support this proposal because so doing would deprive them of leverage over tax rates only on income above that level.
Murray is chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee – and she’s signaling that she thinks this battle makes for good politics. The idea is to separate the debate over the middle-class tax cuts from the debate over the high-end ones; if the latter debate can be isolated, it’s a tougher position for Republicans.
The Senate is expected to vote later this month on this proposal. Right now, we’re talking only about a continuation of the low rates. If the Bush tax cuts expire and Murray’s scenario comes to pass, Republicans would be forced into voting against an outright reduction of tax rates on all that income simply because they also want a reduction on income above that. If that doesn’t clarify the debate, it’s unclear what will.
