Congress: Extend Tax Rates, Pass Budget, Then Go Home!

Other than making the current tax rates permanent and getting the budget passed, why not just shelve everything else until the new Congress is sworn in?  No vote on the Dream Act. No vote on START,  Leave the screwed up "Food Safety Act" to gather dust in the House of Representatives.  The people voted on November 2nd.  That does not mean that the outgoing members of Congress should go into a lame duck session to try to ram through every piece of legislation that they didn't dare take up before the election. Go home and eat some crow.

After meeting, Obama and Republicans hopeful about a deal on Bush tax cuts

By Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 1, 2010; 12:10 AM

President Obama and congressional Republicans expressed determination Tuesday to reach an agreement on the tax cuts due to expire at year's end, raising the possibility of a compromise that could avert a tax increase for virtually every American worker.

The comments came after a much-anticipated meeting at the White House between Obama and GOP leaders, their first face-to-face encounter since Democrats suffered heavy losses on Election Day. No formal agreement was made, but the meeting marked a sharp departure from the practice of the past two years, when Obama dealt almost exclusively with Democrats - in part because Republicans were content to try to block his every move.
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