sinidentidades:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has debated, sniped and voted on the politically fraught issue of tax cuts, and next week the House is likely to do it all over again. Still, Americans won’t know until after the November elections how much more of their paychecks will go to the government next year.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that his Republican-led chamber is “more than willing” to make Democrats vote on the President Barack Obama’s plan to extend former president George W. Bush’s tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans. He also is bringing up the GOP’s proposal to extend the tax cuts for everyone.

The outcome is almost certainly stalemated until the November elections, so leaders of both houses of Congress are turning the House and Senate into campaign stages on one of the defining issues of the presidential and congressional races.

Obama signaled on Thursday he’s ready to do his part to light a fire under lawmakers. “I would urge the House of Representatives to do the right thing,” he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting. He said he and top aides will “amplify that message” in the days to come.

Obama said the one-year extension would provide “certainty and security to families who are already feeling pinched” and reassure businesses by taking “a whole bunch of uncertainty out of the economy” at a time of global economic worries.

The Senate opened the drama Wednesday with surprise debates and passage of a Democratic bill fashioned on President Barack Obama’s proposal to extend the income tax cuts to all but the wealthiest Americans through 2013. It passed even though the measure stands no chance of surviving the Republican-led House. Meanwhile, the Senate rejected a GOP amendment to extend the cuts to all taxpayers. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, intends to bring up that measure in his chamber next week.

Yay! They finally did something right.