Shumer (D-NY) Proposes to Raise the Bar on Tax Cuts for Higher-End Earners

Since the Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, there is an urgency in Washington to get something done during the lame-duck session.

Up until now, there has been a line drawn at those that make $250K and over. Since many small business would fit in the over $250K bracket, GOP wants all of the cuts to me made permanent, but Obama and the Democrats are calling for all but the cuts for those higher-end earners to be made permanent.

While he was on "Face the Nation", Senator Chuck Shumer offered a compromise to get past this roadblock:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday proposed a compromise on the Bush-era tax cuts that would keep them for people making less than $1 million but would eliminate then for "millionaires and billionaires."

"It would be much better to raise the limit to a million dollars," Schumer said on CBS's "Face the Nation," rather than allowing Warren Buffett and other billionaires get a tax cut.

"They are not small businesses," Schumer said.

This will be much harder for the Republicans to resist. Most small business don't make over a million a year. It'll be interesting to see if the rest of the Democrats will adopt this new limit. If they do, then, they may be able to get enough Republicans and Blue Dogs to join in to make this possible.

However, word coming down from the liberal Democrats is that it may not be good enough.