ONE HISTORIC BILL AFTER ANOTHER:

GOP Reaches Deal on Tax Cuts: $70 Billion Measure Would Extend Breaks (Jonathan Weisman and Paul Blustein, 5/10/06, Washington Post)

House and Senate Republican negotiators reached a final agreement yesterday on a five-year, nearly $70 billion tax package that would extend President Bush's deep cuts to tax rates on dividends and capital gains, while sparing about 15 million middle-income Americans from the alternative minimum tax.

Republican leaders hope to pass the agreement swiftly. House consideration is scheduled for tonight, with the Senate likely to send the measure to the White House for the president's signature by the end of the week.

While it's comforting that the Presiden just keeps winning and cementing one piece after another of his realigning legacy in place, it's sometimes annoying to be the party of good government. Democrats would never do something like support the AMT reform just because it's the right thing to do when they could instead use it as a political weapon. Ah, well, such are the wages of being the grown-ups in town.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 10, 2006 7:13 AM