As expected, the tax relief bill that raced through the House is stalling in the Senate. This is partly
due to an attempt by Democratic leaders to craft a bill that will simultaneously cause Republican Senators, who they consider vulnerable in the upcoming election, to vote against it and provide an issue for Democratic challengers to use against them. This is how politics interferes with policy of course, but its how the game is played.
In order to ensure that the bill will pass in a timely fashion, a cloture vote passed today that will limit the amount of time that can be spent debating the bill on the floor of the Senate. We will follow it and see what passes and when.
By the way, some noted economists have come out against the tax stimulus plan. This will be useful to cover in 2302 when we cover economics policy.
