Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) says he won’t back down on extending the Bush-era tax rates for all Americans:
The House Republican leader on Sunday suggested he may be willing to concede to Democrats who want to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for the wealthiest Americans, but the Senate Republican leader today said he is standing his ground.
A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said today that McConnell has received a promise from every Senate Republican to filibuster any attempt to extend the Bush tax cuts that doesn’t include the tax cuts for the wealthy, the Associated Press reports.
“That’s the kind of debate that unifies my caucus, from Olympia Snowe to Jim DeMint,” McConnell said, the Washington Post reports, referring to the most liberal and most conservative Senate Republicans.
The White House figured this would be an easy battle to win in the court of public opinion. But as more and more Senate Democrats come out in favor of extending the current tax-rates across the board, Obama’s tax plan is already looking like a dead letter.
UPDATE: Whoops. Check out this update to the AP story:
The story was also updated to reflect a correction from the Associated Press. The story originally included an inaccurate AP report that every Republican senator has pledged to filibuster an extension of the Bush tax cuts that does not extend the tax cuts for everyone. The story was amended to clarify that every Republican is opposed to the plan; they have not pledged to filibuster it, however.
So it remains to be seen how committed the Senate GOP are to standing strong on current tax rates. Though, with at least five Democrats suggesting they’ll stand with them, Republicans might not need to filibuster to win.