re: #17 Obdicut

It’s all about the elections. If they voted on this before November 2010, it becomes an election issue in 2010 and Democrats were already wary of being hammered and losing House and Senate seats. Waiting until the lame duck enables them to deal with it without worrying about the immediacy of the election (now just under 2 years away), but the flipside is that it gets tied with the national general election. By extending the tax law for 2 more years with some adjustments, this guarantees to be an issue in the 2012 election.

It becomes something on which Obama can run - as a tax cutter (extender).

Obama’s political calculus is different than that of the legislators in the House and Senate.