Necessary Roughness

The AP reports that both houses of Congress are preparing to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. All the Republicans in the House opposed the expiration. In the Senate:

Clinton and Obama did vote for $340 billion in tax cuts over five years for middle- and higher-income taxpayers, investors and people inheriting businesses and big estates.

But they joined with Democrats and a couple of maverick Republicans to reject, 52-47, an additional $600 billion in extensions of income tax rate cuts, more generous estate tax cuts and relief from the alternative minimum tax.

The maverick senators? Republicrats George Voinovich and Olympia Snowe (Maine). Even the economically challenged Senator McCain got this right.