Drama continues to unfold on Capitol Hill as the hot summer heat seems to be getting to members of Congress. We posted yesterday of a "showdown" meeting of members of the long-stalled pension reform conference committee that took place last night. But the meeting did not go as conference chairman Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) planned as House GOP conferees boycotted the meeting

The conference committee considering the pension bill will hold a vote on whether or not to include a set of tax provisions - know as "extenders" - in the pension bill being considered. By moving the extenders out of the pension bill, the GOP leadership hopes use the extenders as a "sweetener" for an estate tax reduction bill to garner the 60 votes needed overcome a filibuster. Bloomberg:

OMB Watch has partnered with the National Taxpayers Union to draft a letter to the Senate in support of making federal department budget justification reports public documents. The completed letter was sent to the Hill yesterday afternoon with the endorsement of 54 organizations.

Supply-siders argue that tax cuts do not cause budget deficits because they create so much economic growth that total tax revenues will increase, even at the lower tax rates. In short: tax cuts pay for themselves. The Treasury Department released a report today which analyzes the economic effect of President Bush's tax cuts and concludes that tax cuts do not, in fact, pay for themselves. From page ii of the Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of Treasury's A Dynamic Analysis of Permanent Extension of the President’s Tax Relief: