It's hard to believe, but the House is now emerging as more of a problem to progressive governance than the Senate.
Just as it did on Wall Street reform, the Senate looks ready to outperform the House on the economic relief bill (variously called the tax extenders bill and unemployment extension bill). After the Blue Dogs successfully managed to slash the House version of the bill by $79 billion, the Senate version that is being debated on the floor has restored $27 billion of that funding, and done so in mostly positive ways:
The Senate will resume consideration Wednesday of a tax cut and benefit extension bill.
The package has grown from the $113 billion that was approved by the House several weeks ago to a Senate package that now costs $140 billion.(...)
One of the changes the Senate made to the House-passed bill increased Medicaid assistance to state governments by about $24 billion.
Senators will also be able to offer amendments to the bill during the debate, so the final version is not set. It could get stronger (with, for example, the addition of COBRA), or it could get weaker. Both Harry Reid and Charles Schumer express confidence that the bill will pass next week, without any significant weakening amendments, but then again Democratic leaders always express that sort of confidence.
Because the bill has been changed from the House version, there will also have to be a conference committee between the House and Senate now. So, this fight will continue even after the bill passes the Senate next week.
Combine this with the Wall Street reform conference committee, and it is time to turn away from elections for a bit, and focus on the hard slog of governing. We should all make sure to enjoy this time, even while we agitate as hard as possible to improve the various pieces of legislation under consideration. These next couple months are going to be the last time for a while that Democrats will be governing with such a large majority, and we need to make it count.
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