By Nathan Henderson-James

A new Research Memo published today by Project Vote shows that while youth voter participation has been setting records this election cycle, participation by young people still lags behind other age groups. Further the data show that participation has largely been confined to young people with at least some college experience.In Project Vote's view, this data suggests that continued focus on college-attending youth without reaching out to non-college youth threatens to leave at least half of this key constituency out of the most important election in a generation.

Republicans claim they are the party that fights for the American taxpayer. But when you look at their record, rather than their rhetoric, it becomes clear that are more than willing to overlook the needs of the individual taxpayer if they believe they can get away with it. Back in May, for instance, actually >raised taxes on teenagers by $2.2 billion to partially offset cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Now, according to Elana Schor of The Hill, Republicans are allowing tax cuts for things like tuition costs and teacher's expenses for the classroom to lapse in an attempt to score some political points.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) yesterday continued his quest to pass a stalled package of popular tax extenders before lawmakers leave town this weekend, releasing new data showing that inaction would affect millions more taxpayers than previously estimated.

The tax extenders are a high priority for businesses that rely on the research-and-development tax credit and fear capital losses if it lapses. But the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) updated report to Grassley showed that 19.2 million individuals would be affected by a delay in extension of three other deductions in the package: for state and local sales taxes, college tuition and fees, and teachers' purchase of school supplies.

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Grassley has kept a steady drumbeat of criticism as Senate leaders continue to postpone action on the tax extenders, which failed in July as part of the "trifecta" bill that included a minimum-wage hike and an estate tax cut. His calls for quick action on the extenders have been echoed by Democrats but few Republicans, who still hope to use the once must-pass package as a sweetener for a trifecta sequel or other contentious legislation.

This is not the first time in recent days that Republican leaders have put politics above policy. (Well, one could probably convincingly argue that Republicans always care more about politics than policy, but that's a whole other debate...) Yesterday we learned that House Speaker Denny Hastert was blocking defense appropriations legislation in the hopes of advancing a hard-right, nativist anti-immigrant measure to fire up the GOP base.

It is almost as if Republicans are tricking themselves into believing that the next Congress will be more politically amenable to them, that they will have fewer Democrats to have to deal with. Were I a Republican leader, I would be rushing to pass all of the anti-choice, anti-tax, anti-social programs legislation I could before Democrats gain seats in both chambers (which they are no doubt going to do) and perhaps even gain control of one or both chambers of Congress.

Instead, Republican leaders are playing politics by obstructing tuition tax cuts that would benefit countless middle class American families. It really does show you where their priorities are.