Senators Burn Midnight Oil, But Bush Tax Cuts Fail

On a working Saturday night for Congress, two votes on Democratic measures in the Senate failed to extend the Bush tax cuts.

That means, for the time being anyway, the measure isn't going anywhere.

The first vote was to extend the cuts to families earning no more than $250,000; the other was to extend the cuts to those making up to $1 million. On each vote, 53 senators voted for. But to end the debate, Democrats needed a total of 60 votes.

Not surprisingly, Florida senators split -- Democrat Bill Nelson for, Republican George LeMieux against.

In a statement released later, President Barack Obama said, "I am very disappointed that the Senate did not pass legislation that had already passed the House of Representatives to make middle class tax cuts permanent. I continue to believe that it makes no sense to hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage to permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," he said, "especially when those high-income tax cuts would cost an additional $700 billion that we don't have and would add to our deficit."