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Democrats may have lost control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans in Tuesday's elections, but the six seats the GOP gained in the Senate weren't enough to take full control of Congress and avoid compromise on key issues such as the Bush tax cuts.
After a conference call with his Democratic colleagues Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D,-Nev., explained that Democrats "are focused like a laser" on tax cuts "for the middle class," and said he hoped Republicans would not block these plans.
But even before Tuesday's decisive election results, Republicans expressed unwillingness to compromise on anything short of extending tax cuts for all Americans and have introduced legislation to make them permanent, explaining that a recession is no time to raise taxes.
While Reid may be open to a compromise on who receives the tax cuts, he seems resolved against making the cuts permanent. "We are not ostriches with our head in the sand someplace. We're willing to pull our head out and look around if they have some better ideas. But I think that the legislation introduced by my counterpart, Mitch McConnell, where you extend everything indefinitely, that's a road to a $4 trillion addition to the debt that we have, and that won't happen," Reid said.
The Congress must come to a compromise before the tax cuts expire completely on Dec. 31. But three new members joining the Senate have all expressed their support for making the cuts permanent — a potential political roadblock for Reid.
"Nothing has been decided. The only thing that everyone agrees on is to extend the tax cuts for the middle class. What, if anything else, will be done will be subject to negotiations with the Republicans," a senior Senate Democratic aide told Fox News. Though the tax cut debate is "likely" during the lame-duck session, "next steps must still be discussed."
During his post-election press conference Wednesday, President Obama said he plans to meet with Congressional leaders from both parties "some time in the next few weeks and see where we can move forward."
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