Sen. Joe Lieberman, as he often does, tries to talk sense to his Democratic colleagues:
“My guess is that we will extend the so-called middle class tax cuts permanently, so to speak, and we will agree to extend the tax cuts for high income earners for at least a year or two,” Lieberman told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.”
“I favor that. It’s easy enough to say that people who make a lot of money don’t deserve a tax cut now, but the truth is if you have more money, you spend more money, you invest more money [and] that’s what we need to happen now to grow jobs and our economy.”
It’s not clear whether Lieberman merely hopes that his Democratic friends will do the right thing or whether he is predicting that they will. But if it’s the latter, what other than political cowardice (scared of their own base, are they?) is preventing them from taking the vote now?
Lieberman notes: “If we don’t do anything, everybody’s taxes go up in January . … It is a possibility and to me it’s the surest way to send America back into a second dip of a recession. So we’ve got to find a way to break through this partisan gridlock and come to a compromise.” Well, one way would be to change the composition of the House and Senate. I think that’s what the voters have in mind.