Tax Cuts

I simply don't understand why Democrats need Republican Senators to vote for extending the tax cuts for middle class Americans. The original Bush tax cuts were approved under a suspension of the filibuster rules. Because tax cuts "affect the budget" they can be passed as budget reconciliation acts which do not require cloture to proceed, therefore don't require a single Republican vote. The biggest obstacle to a more progressive tax code is the so-called centrist Democrats (e.g. Ben Nelson (NE), Mary Landrieu (LA), etc...) who might want to extract another pound of flesh for their states in exchange for a sane tax policy (as they did with the Affordable Care Act).

Oh that's right, that's because it's a Politico story, which automatically discounts any courses of action that don't meet the demands of the right wing. Those actions are illegitimate, I presume, because they do not fit Politico's preferred narrative.