Congress brings Bush tax cut showdown to fore

Congress might not actually decide what to do about the Bush tax cut extensions before the November election, but they're going to have a prolonged fight about it. House leadership has set their calendar for the summer, and in between taking lots of weeks off, they'll take a July vote on extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone.

Democrats, on the other hand, are pushing to decouple the cuts for the middle class from the wealthy, though they're having some difficulty agreeing on the cut-off for middle class: $250,000 annually or $1 million.

For his part, President Obama has continued to set the threshold at $250,000, a level that makes sense both politically (unless you're Chuck Schumer and represent a lot of very wealthy New Yorkers) and fiscally. Republicans will insist that this is going to cripple small business (and don't forget that their definition of small business owners includes the owners of KKR, Koch Industries, CoorsTek, the Carlyle Group, Harrah's Entertainment and PriceWaterhouseCoopers).

Two years of polling has consistently shown that taxing the wealthy is a political winner, so there's not much to lose for Democrats in holding the line on this one, and at least on the Senate side where they control the voting agenda, to keep making Republican senators vote the Grover Norquist agenda.