Today in Washington D. C. - March 11, 2008

On The Floor: The Senate reconvened at 10 AM today and began an hour of morning business. Following the completion of morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the fiscal 2009 budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 70). Two tax amendments could be offered to the budget today. Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) may offer an amendment to extend some tax cuts Democrats like, such as the child tax credit, the 10% tax bracket, and the elimination of the marriage penalty. (Of course, most Democrats voted against creating these in 2001.) Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) may offer an amendment to make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent. The budget is scheduled for 50 hours of floor debate, as is required. The annual “vote-a-rama” on a series of amendments to the budget could come Thursday night.

From Senate & News Sources: As debate on the budget gets under way in earnest, Senate Republicans are sounding the alarm on Democrats’ plans for higher taxes. Democrats repeatedly promised not to raise taxes on Americans, but their latest budget assumes a $1.2 trillion tax increase, which would be the largest in U.S. history. What would such a tax increase mean for Americans? 116 million Americans would see a tax increase, and each year 43 million families would pay $2,300 more in taxes, 18 million seniors would pay $2,200 more, and 27 million small businesses would pay $4,100 more.

In addition, the budget calls for a $211 billion increase in spending, which Democrats purport to pay for with gimmicks such as closing the tax gap which is "hardly enough to rely upon for offsetting the billions of dollars in new spending Democrats are proposing.”

On the other side of the Capitol, The New York Times and CQ Today report that House Democrats are preparing to offer a new version of the FISA modernization bill. Unfortunately, this proposal again leaves out the essential immunity from lawsuits that telecom companies face for cooperating on terrorist surveillance. Since the president is unlikely to sign such a bill, the result could be the House leaving for yet another recess without fixing our degraded capability to gather intelligence. It was irresponsible for the House to allow the Protect America Act expire and then leave town back in February, and it would be just as irresponsible to leave town with things as they are a month later. The House should pass the Senate’s FISA bill before Congress leaves on Friday.

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