House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) declared Tuesday that raising taxes is “off the table” in negotiations on deficit reduction, prompting a White House complaint that such “maximalist positions” do not lead to compromise.Read the rest here.
The White House also denounced Boehner’s demand a day earlier for more than $2 trillion in spending cuts in exchange for Republican agreement to raise the U.S. debt limit. Press secretary Jay Carney likened the demand to a hostage-taking, telling reporters, “It is folly to hold hostage the vote to raise the debt ceiling . . . to any other piece of legislation.” He said increasing the debt limit is intended to prevent the United States “from defaulting on its obligations.”
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show ahead of a new round of deficit-reduction talks hosted by Vice President Biden, Boehner appeared to rule out any compromise with Democrats on allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans to expire or ending tax breaks worth billions of dollars to large oil companies making record profits. Republicans define both steps as tax increases.
“What some are suggesting is we take the money from people who would invest in our economy and create jobs and give it to the government,” Boehner said. “The fact is you can’t tax the people we expect to invest in the economy and create jobs. Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem. Washington has a spending problem.”
Asked whether “raising taxes is a nonstarter,” Boehner replied: “It’s off the table. Everything else is on the table.”
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4 comments:
Republicans are quite literally insane.
The majority of people in the upper income brackets voted for Obama, so if they don't have a problem with tax hikes on their bracket, then I don't see why the Republicans should. At the same time, there's no law that prohibits Americans who think their taxes are too low from paying more. Finally, if you tax all income above $1M at 100%, (1) it still won't be enough and (2) you'll experience massive capital flight.
The federal government collects $2T+/yr in tax revenue, and that's just the first cut before state and local taxation. If a quarter of the GDP is not enough for government, then government is too large.
Anonymous,
Not all are. But if the Speaker is serious in his comments, and not just posturing for the benefit of the lunatic fringe (ooops I meant the party base), then I would question is his mental faculties.
I support the Speaker's position. Taxes are too high already, especially on the top 20% of taxpayers. The highest marginal Federal rate shouldn't exceed 25%.
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