Congress is likely to keep the Bush tax cuts for taxpayers making $250,000 and below, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) told CNBC Friday.
"President Obama has indicated he wants to extend the tax cuts for $250,000 and below ... I think Congress will work very hard to keep the commitments that President Obama has made," Dorgan said.
Dorgan also said it's possible the capital gains tax rate will rise to only 20 percent from 15 percent, and not soar to 39.6 percent, as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC earlier this week.
"We will certainly want to do something on the cap gains rate that we believe will incentivize the capital formation in this country," Dorgan said.
While Congress won't want to raise taxes after a recession that's been so steep and lengthy, he said, "we all have to understand, we’re in a fiscal policy situation that’s very difficult."
"That means reconciling the issue of what’s coming in, in the form of revenues, and how do we cut spending," Dorgan said.
Dorgan also told CNBC the sentiment that Washington is anti-business is "Byzantine."
"I’ll tell you what’s anti-business, you have the biggest financial companies in the country doing trillions of dollars of trades in naked credit default swaps where there’s no insurable interest anywhere and they run country into the ditch, that’s what’s anti-business," Dorgan said.