Taxes aside, no love lost between Democrats, Republicans (Feature)

By Chris Cermak Dec 17, 2010, 6:20 GMT

Washington - US President Barack Obama brokered a deal with Republicans over taxes, but looming fights before year's end on other domestic priorities suggest the agreement marked a very temporary show of bipartisanship rather than a hopeful new trend.

The compromise finally passed near midnight Thursday and was headed for Obama's signature into law to enact a two-year extension of across-the-board income tax cuts enacted under former president George W Bush.

The Senate passed the measure on Wednesday by a vote of 81-19, in a show of bipartisanship that has been extremely rare on major legislation since Obama took office in January 2009.

The measure passed the House by 277-148, with most of the opposition coming from the left wing of Obama's own party.

Obama's Democrats and conservative Republicans have been at odds throughout his presidency. Major overhauls of the health care and financial sectors - key priorities for Obama - were enacted this year along party lines after long legislative battles.

While the tax legislation passed, only rough seas were in sight for other critical legislation pending before the end of the year. Neither chamber of Congress was expected to close up shop for the holidays by Friday as planned.

The top Democrat in the Senate has vowed to keep the chamber in session for as long as it takes to vote on key priorities, including a nuclear-arms reduction treaty with Russia and a major government budget package.

'We are in session if necessary up to January 5,' majority leader Harry Reid told reporters. 'I hope that's not necessary, but that's the clock my Republican colleagues have to run out.'

The drama begins with avoiding a government shutdown that has been threatened by partisan wrangling among lawmakers since the current 'lame-duck' session began after November's congressional elections.

The battles are all part of key political calculations made by both political parties in order to get legislation that reflects their own priorities. The gridlock has often forced Congress to work into the end of December.

Obama's fellow Democrats have been pushing hard for key votes in the Senate while they still have sizeable majorities in Congress. Republicans, who on January 5 will regain control of the House of Representatives and slim the Democrats' majorities in the Senate, have been doing everything in their power to stall progress.

Funding for government agencies runs out at midnight on Saturday. Democrats have been unable to advance a 1.1-trillion-dollar spending bill to carry the federal government through 2011, in the face of Republican demands for a one-page measure that would simply keep funding until February at current levels.

The Senate was also in the process Thursday of debating the ratification of a nuclear-arms reduction treaty, signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April. Obama has said delaying the bill until January threatens national security.

Reid vowed to bring other domestic priorities dear to Democrats to a vote before the session ends. That includes ending the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military, and legislation allowing children of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship if they attend university or join the US military.

There is a sense of deja vu in the bitter fights and the late- night and weekend sessions that could dog the Senate through the Christmas holidays. The chamber last year took until the early morning of December 24 to approve a reform of health care, leaving senators racing to catch planes to get home to their families.

'Here we go again,' Mitch McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, said Thursday. 'We've even got snow in the forecast just like last year, when we voted on the health-care bill in a blizzard.'

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