Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Senate To Stay In Session In August To Consider Tax Cut Extension

This story from Jay Newton-Small of Time confirms what I posted earlier today about the Senate Democratic leadership wanting to vote before the election on extending the tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration.

I will resist the strong urge to say I told you so.

Here's the money quote:

The emerging tax plan is designed, as much as anything else, to clarify the differences between the two parties as they hurtle toward the fall elections. Following on their success with the financial-regulatory-reform bill, Democrats are betting that Republicans will once again take up a legislative battle on behalf of the wealthy. "Republicans are going to have a real choice ahead of them," says a Democratic aide. "Are you for extending these tax cuts for middle-class families or are you against them because you want to protect tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans?"

The showdown could come as early as August, now that Senate majority leader Harry Reid has decided to keep his colleagues in Washington through the middle of next month.