It is up to Harry now.

...Baucus began hearings (click title to entry - thank you) on tax reform last September, when he declared "our continued prosperity and international competitiveness rest on our facing these challenges." But now with Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's publicly on board, tax reform could become the next big issue for Congress to tackle this year after the debate on raising the national debt ceiling....

Filibuster Reform has to occur.  It is stifling the nation.  There is no reason to believe the Repuglicans are capable to good governance.  They weren't capable of it in the Senate and now the House is a disaster, with only an occassion glimmer of hope such as Rep. Allen West, former military, joined The Black Caucus. (click here)

...On several occasions in 2010, (click here) a majority of senators wanted to bring legislation to the Senate floor to extend unemployment benefits for millions of workers who had been laid off for long stretches.

The most frustrating incident occurred in late June, when I was one of 59 senators who wanted to restore unemployment benefits for laid-off workers who had been without them since May. The Republican minority in the Senate objected and delayed the vote using procedural tactics — then departed town for a weeklong break, leaving those 1.3 million jobless Americans in limbo for several agonizing weeks.

An empty Senate is no way to respond to Americans who need help, and yet this is what’s happening in today’s Washington....

I really have to congratulate Former House Majority Leader and now House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in that she never wavered to the reform the country needed, even when the Senate was most dysfunctional. 

...The distressing truth (click here) is that the federal government appears to be incapable of tackling the big issues that will determine the nation's future health and vitality. Is it because we're too polarized by divisions of ideology, race or class? Is it a lack of will or resources? Or the pernicious influence of corruption and malfeasance?

The answer? None of the above.

The real source of federal-level dysfunction is the United States Senate.

The fact is that a two-chamber legislative branch was not the preferred model for many of our Founding Fathers. Thomas Paine argued for a single chamber. Benjamin Franklin thought having both a House and a Senate was like "putting one horse before a cart and the other behind it, and whipping them both."
But even Franklin would never have imagined just how incapable of action the Senate would become. That's because when he was around, the filibuster — which requires 60 votes to end debate and begin voting on pending legislation — hadn't been invented. It didn't become part of Senate rules until 1806. Even then, it was purely an accident — the unintentional consequence of a housekeeping measure to simplify the Senate rule book....

It is best that Tax Reform occur while Harry's Democrats have the final say.  There is a lot of work to be done when the Senate returns, including the conclusion of the tax debate.  When tax reform occurs the nation will finally be rid of the corruption the the Repuglians of the past 4 decades. 

NO MORE CORPORATE DARLINGS HARRY.

One of the greatest contributions of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to the nation under the Obama Administration are his administrative reforms in obtaining military hardware and cutting the budget.  He has been a very dedicated member of the USA citizenry and I thank him.  He will be missed.