Senate Democrats tighten the screws on middle class tax cuts

Sen. Chuck Schumer Let the taunting begin. A handful of Senate Democrats held a press conference Wednesday morning, basically daring Republicans to follow through on a strategy in which they allow the vote on extending middle class tax cuts, then take the debt ceiling hostage again.

"I think they learned their lesson with the debt ceiling," said Sen. Chuck Schumer. "I don't think it's leverage at all. Any talk that that is leverage for them, I think, is false." [...]

"We are not going to negotiate those details until there is a vote on tax cuts," Schumer said.

Schumer, joined by Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Mark Begich, stood next to a sign that bore the message, "In 27 Days Middle-class taxes will go up $2,200 unless the House acts."

This is to shoot down the so-called "doomsday plan" Republicans have cooked up. The theory goes that they take the vote on middle class tax cuts, but allow everything else to expire, and then have more leverage in January, when they once again take the debt ceiling hostage. Because they still want the world to know they're willing to blow up the global economy.

Democrats are taking the bet that the world is not going to react positively to those kinds of threats. That's why President Obama met with business leaders to enlist them in the fight, and why Schumer and others are daring Republicans to go ahead and do it. The public polling on this couldn't be more clear: Republicans have already lost the argument.