"Yeah. I think they will blink when their constituents tell them enough is enough, let's move on a tax cut for 98 percent of the American people, in fact 100 percent, everyone will get it up to $250,000 dollars," Axelrod told the Huffington Post. "They just want to give a special premium to millionaires and billionaires and we can't afford the $700 billion to do that."
Acknowledging that a vote isn't coming before Election Day, Axelrod's outlook for the tax cut debate suggests that both he and congressional Democrats are prepping for high-stakes, high drama political brinksmanship during the lame duck session. To date, the White House has refused to budge from its position that extending the rates for the rich would be wasteful and bust the federal budget. Not a single Republican lawmaker, meanwhile, has stated his or her willingness to vote for the president's package -- setting up a situation in which both sides end up working a small number of moderate Republicans in hopes that they either change or stay the course respectively.
Congressional Democrats showed their determination . . . by chickening out of a vote.