On Mar. 2, Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA) submitted a Committee "Budget Views and Estimates" ($) letter to the Senate Budget Committee that conveys very few specific views, with these notable exceptions:

• AMT Relief: the AMT hold-harmless provisions "will require an extension for calandar years 2007 and 2008" -- a development we recently noted
• Expiring Tax Provisions: due to the "unnecessary" cost and complication arising from extension of tax provisions that expired last year (on the final day of the 109th Congress) "an extension of expiring tax provisions should be enacted in a timely manner, and extended through calandar year 2009"
• Pay-Go Language: the Committee recommends "that any pay-go language included in the Budget Resolution pertain to multi-year periods as specified in the recently adopted House rules" creating a point of order against proposals increasing the deficit or reducing the surplus five years and ten years out

Nothing wrong in principle with the first two items, in view of the third -- so long as a Budget Resolution redressing last year's Senate Pay-Go regime, which applied to mandatory spending increases but not against revenues cuts, is adopted this year. And the Finance Committee's language here leaves room for such a Pay-Go regime change by the Budget Committee.