8 Hours of Dissent

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Senator who calls himself a Socialist but caucuses with the Democrats, took to the Senate Floor yesterday to speak for 8 hours in opposition to the tax-cut deal President Obama made earlier in the week with congressional Republicans.  It wasn't a serious filibuster--Sanders knew he didn't have the 40 votes needed to stop cloture--but a chance for him to convey just how strongly he opposed the huge cuts in the estate tax that were part of the deal, which Sanders labeled "unconscionable."  "This is not a tax on the rich," Sanders said.  "This is a tax on the very, very, very rich."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is, however, supportive of the deal, and it appears that it will pass the Senate easily.  The potential roadblock is in the House, where the Democratic leadership has said it will not bring the package to the floor without further modification.  But how strong is the the leadership's leverage?  After all, as President Obama pointed out in his press conference, House Democrats will soon be in the minority, and when the Republicans take charge in 2011 they could threaten to modify the deal in ways even more objectionable to Sanders and his outraged colleagues in the House.