Today seems like a good day for a good, ol’ fashioned conspiracy theory, especially one that seems like it’s true.

In a largely symbolic vote designed to score political points, the House voted Thursday to extend the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans, and Harry Reid plans to follow suit with a similar Senate vote, plus one on extending the tax breaks for everyone.

The Democratic move, which will vanish into Senate quicksand, infuriated Republicans.
[…]
In Washington, where anything beyond last week’s news cycle is considered ancient history, the jury-rigged nature of the Bush plan—and the fiscal sleight-of-hand involved—have been all but forgotten.

“We knew that, politically, once you get it into law, it becomes almost impossible to remove it,” says Dan Bartlett, Bush’s former communications director. “That’s not a bad legacy. The fact that we were able to lay the trap does feel pretty good, to tell you the truth.”

[…] Had the tax breaks been made permanent—or even extended beyond Sept. 30, 2011—the fledgling Bush administration would have had to muster a 60-vote Senate majority under the so-called Byrd Rule, named for master parliamentarian Robert Byrd. (The final version, cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion, garnered 58 votes.) And by moving up the expiration date by nine months, the Bush team saved $100 billion and made the bill’s deficit-busting impact appear smaller.

As an added bonus, the “sunset” provision, in Beltway-speak, was a political time bomb: At some point in the way distant future, Democrats could be accused of raising taxes if they tried to undo the Bush breaks and return to Clinton-era levels of taxation.

Found by Gary the Dangerous Infidel