Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Finance Committee Member Chuck Schumer are both against a key piece of Bowles-Simpson B.S.:
We now know where Harry Reid stands in the great divide between base-broadening, rate-lowering "tax reform" and the Chuck Schumer approach, which rejects lowering rates as a trap. As I fully expected, Reid sided with Schumer:
"He's supportive of the Schumer approach, thinks it's smart to put the goalposts where Schumer set them," said a Senate Dem leadership aide, who confirmed that Reid questions a framework - like Simpson-Bowles - which cedes tax rate cuts for top earners at the outset.
Obviously, this is critical for the lame duck session and a hypothetical grand bargain, as Reid will be in the room on any deal. And he agrees with Schumer that allowing rates to go down, Bowles-Simpson style, based on a theory that the base would stay broad enough to increase revenue, just invites trouble.
Putting my ear to the ground I hear that our two esteemed senators love to be wooed by the Masters of the Universe back in DC: Big Bankers, Big Finance, and Millionaires and Billionaires who have a vested interest in cutting Social Security. Oh, and their Republican counterparts with whom they are just dying to be bipartisan.
Do Udall and Bennet listen to their Senate leaders like Reid and Schumer?
Do they read "Dear Colleague" letters from the likes of Bernie Sanders?
Do they listen to be-slippered, be-pajama'd bloggers who harp on the subject?
They're quiet, too quiet, eerily quiet as they work the back rooms of DC toward a Grand Bargain that Americans do not want and have not voted for.
UPDATE: The Esteemed Mark Udall doesn't listen to me or you. He twits on about JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon on the issue:
MarkUdall Glad to hear that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon backs the @BowlesSimpson plan. We must get our fiscal house in order: bit.ly/QZZltd |
