Two more Senate Democrats called for extending tax cuts for all earners—including those with the highest incomes—in what appears to be a breakdown of the party's consensus on the how to handle the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said in an interview Wednesday that Congress shouldn't allow taxes on the wealthy to rise until the economy is on a sounder footing.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration will allow tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire despite calls from a small group of Democrats to delay tax increases. Kelly Evans talks to John McKinnon in Washington.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) said through a spokesman that he also supported extending all the expiring tax cuts for now, adding that he wanted to offset the impact on federal deficits as much as possible.
They are the second and third Senate Democrats to come out publicly in recent days in favor of extending all the tax breaks for the time being. Sen. Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) made similar comments last week.
"As a general rule, you don't want to be cutting spending or raising taxes in the midst of a downturn," Mr. Conrad said. "We know that very soon we've got to pivot and focus on the deficit. But it probably is too soon to cut spending or raise taxes."
The comments from the senators represent a departure from what appeared to be an emerging unified Democratic stance on the Bush tax cuts, which held that those for the wealthiest Americans should be allowed to expire.
President Barack Obama and most Democrats want to extend only the breaks benefiting taxpayers who make $250,000 or less.
Allowing breaks for higher earners to expire would push the top individual tax rate to 39.6% from 35%, and would raise rates on capital gains and dividends, too.
The breaks enacted in 2001 and 2003, which affect taxpayers of all income levels, expire at the end of this year.
Republicans and many business groups favor extending all the breaks, contending that increasing tax rates will hit small businesses hard. With U.S. employment still weak, some centrist Democrats are agreeing, prompted to change their stance by the still-ugly economic picture.
In addition to Messrs. Conrad, Nelson and Bayh, at least half a dozen House Democrats also have come out publicly in favor of postponing tax increases for higher earners.
"We're not creating jobs, and raising taxes now would not be a great idea," Rep. Michael McMahon, a New York Democrat, said this week.
Democrats can't afford to lose many of their own members on the issue. At a minimum, the internal party debate increases the odds that Democrats won't tackle the question of extending the tax cuts until after the November election.
Further delays will expose Democrats to Republican charges that they want to allow all the tax cuts to expire, which the Democrats deny. It is possible that any extension would be only temporary.
Rep. Sander Levin (D., Mich.), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said Wednesday that no decisions had been made on when to take up the tax cuts in the House, but he said the Senate "needs to act first."
Republicans are hoping the expiring Bush tax cuts become a bigger issue in the August recess, when lawmakers go home to talk with constituents. Already, House Republicans have begun pointing to the "ticking tax bomb" that will go off at year's end absent congressional action.
The GOP, for its part, runs some risks pushing for an extension of all the tax cuts, given the nation's sharpening focus on the budget deficit.
A one-year extension would cost at least $115 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Republicans have been pushing Congress to pay for any new spending to avoid increasing the deficit, but they argue tax cuts shouldn't be paid for.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration will allow tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire despite calls from a small group of Democrats to delay tax increases. Kelly Evans talks to John McKinnon in Washington.
Of course they don't want to extend bush's tax cut. There will be no more tax cuts or cuts in spending at any level of government. It is just more taxes and fees imposed on the taxpayer!!! What a mess!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is applauding two Republican senators who voted for a small business bill and says he'd welcome that kind of cooperation on the divisive issue of extending tax cuts for the middle class.
Obama thanked Republicans George Voinovich of Ohio and George LeMieux of Florida for voting to move the bill closer to final passage. Speaking in the Rose Garden after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Obama urged lawmakers to approve an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for middle class families making less than $250,000 a year.
Obama says Republicans should stop holding those tax cuts "hostage."
Republicans are insisting that tax cuts be extended for higher-income wage earners, too. Taxes for everyone will next year unless Congress acts.
At least they're working on allowing SOME of these to be continued... but it is a Fox News story, so it can't be true, right???
I didn't believe when I heard this, and it must be a lie... it was on Fox News. Obama cheering for pushing through, keeping the "Bush tax cuts?"
At least they're working on allowing SOME of these to be continued... but it is a Fox News story, so it can't be true, right???
you never know for sure .. the White House says one thing one minute .. and another 10 minutes later
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
I think Robin Hood is on the run.....there's been mutiny........the internet has made a new era in politics.....the pebbles they drop in the ocean of voters only takes a second to ripple across the ocean......no printing and recinding anymore......IT'S A BRAVE NEW WORLD.....YA'LL BETTER SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND MEAN WHAT YOU SAY......SAY WHAT YOU DO AND DO WHAT YOU SAY......QUICKLY......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Logged
