If you wanted any further evidence that Senate Republicans will make or break the White House’s push to let Bush tax cuts for the rich expire, check out what Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl told reporters this afternoon.
When I asked Kyl whether Senate Republicans would follow John Boehner’s lead and, if left with no alternative, support a middle-class-only tax cut bill he was quick to point out that Republicans have much more power in the Senate than they do in the House.
“In the House, as you know, the Speaker can set the rules pretty much however she wants to,” Kyl said. “She can schedule a vote on whether to jump over the moon if she wants to. So theoretically she can force people into voting on an issue just exactly as she frames it, and I think that’s what representative Boehner was fearing, although he explained very clearly that that would not be the best result.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever get to that point in the Senate,” Kyl added. “I don’t think we in the Senate will ever face the kind of hypothetical that was formulated with respect to Representative Boehner over in the House.”
Meanwhile House Democratic aides tell TPM that they’re almost certainly going to wait until the Senate acts on taxes before they do anything — assuming the Senate acts at all. There’s a fairly high potential for gridlock in the Senate, and the House will have different options to choose from depending on whether Senate Democrats cave, Senate Republicans cave, or neither.
