He's baaaaaaaaaaaack.  Just like Jason in Halloween, Bush keeps coming at the Senate to get the same deal the House gave him on his tax cuts.

There doesn't seem to be much noise in the blogosphere on this, so I'm going to stay with this until people (or the traditional media) begin to pick up on it.  Like Colbert's appearance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the media has been mum on this week's activities between Bush and Senate Republicans.

What's the rush on making these tax cuts permanent, you say?  (Or perhaps even the necessity?).

First, the cuts are due to expire in three years (hmm, that's about a thousand days, right?)  So little time left to bankrupt the country.  Making the tax cuts permanent would extend the 15% maximum tax rate on capital gains and dividends beyond 2008 forever.  If Bush doesn't get his way, without congressional action, capital gains taxes would jump to 20 percent and dividends would be taxed as regular income.

Second, Bush has so little "political capital" left this is likely to be his only chance to salvage any kind of domestic legislative agenda.

Third, since Congress doesn't seem to be too upset about the Katrina costs, this would be a good time to tack on additional increases in our debt.

Fourth, this benefits Bush, Cheney, and crowd (but you knew this already).  How much?  
Check this out.

Fifth, this is also a plan to eliminate the estate tax for those few Americans who are concerned about it.  Here's newly released IRS information on who pays it.  

Sixth, if another pre-emptive war should start with some Middle Eastern country (lemme see, maybe Iran?), it would be more difficult to make the case economically.