PLAYING CHICKEN

Dems Threaten ‘Fiscal Cliff’

May allow all Bush tax cuts to expire.

Underneath the endless arguments over former president George W. Bush’s massive tax cuts and how much they have cost the nation lies a rather disarming truth: if no one does anything, they will all go away next year. And now some Democrats seem to be embracing that reality, despite that excising all the cuts at once could jolt the economy. “If we can’t get a good deal, a balanced deal that calls on the wealthy to pay their fair share, then I will absolutely continue this debate into 2013,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray plans to say in a speech today. Murray and other Democrats think that allowing all the cuts to expire will increase pressure on the GOP to agree to new, more affordable tax cuts that don’t apply to wealthy Americans.