It was a key Democratic demand but party leaders abandoned a
surtax on millionaires to finance a payroll tax holiday
Wednesday night in return for, well, nothing, as of yet.
Yesterday, top Senate Democrats and President Obama met to
consider dropping a 1.9 percent surtax on people earning more
than $1 million per year and ultimately decided to abandon it.
In response, Michael Steel, spokesman for House speaker John
Boehner, told the AP "I don't think it's much of a concession.
It never had any chance of passing the Senate, let alone the
House."  Some analysts last week predicted that a concession to
drop the surtax could be exchanged for the Republicans dropping
a provision to fast-track the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline but
Republicans gave no sign such a deal was in the
works. Update: Still no progress on the outlines of a plan but
Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell surprised reporters today telling
the Senate floor they are close to reconciling their
differences.  Instead of cutting a deal, Roll Call reports