June 17, 2008

The $1.6 billion tax break for trial lawyers, shot down again. The Senate was supposed to have a cloture vote Monday on a motion to proceed to H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act, i.e., the tax extenders bill, but a wicked band of storms passed through and prevented some Senators from getting back for the scheduled 5:30 p.m. vote.

So the vote -- the second go at cloture -- happened today, and the result was 52-44, short of the 60.

The debate has actually barely mentioned the trial lawyer tax break -- explained here -- and has instead focused on whether to raise other taxes as offsets for the incentives. But as a brand new tax break rather than the bill's other provisions, the extenders, the accounting changes certainly don't help win converts from the Republican side.