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Subscribe to RSSAnyone thinking Republicans might be ready to accept extending the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 now, think again.
House Speaker John Boehner (R), the man at the center of negotiations with President Obama, today rejected Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole’s suggestion to pass an extension of tax cuts for 98 percent of people, declare victory, and go home.
Yuri Gripas / Reuters
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) speaks next to Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 28, 2012.
"I told Tom earlier at our conference meeting that I disagreed with him,” Boehner said at a Capitol Hill news conference Wednesday morning. “He's a wonderful friend of mine and a great supporter of mine. In my view, raising taxes on the so-called top 2 percent, half of those taxpayers are small-business owners that pay their taxes through their personal income filing every year. The goal here is to grow the economy and control spending; you're not going to grow the economy if you raise the top 2 percent rates. It'll hurt small businesses, and it'll hurt our economy, why this is not the right approach. We're willing to put revenue on the table as long as we are not raising rates."
Cole (R-OK) on Wednesday reiterated his call for Congress to pass an extension of the Bush tax rates for those making less than $250,000 first and then work on the extension for higher-earners later, a major break from the Republican's strategy in fiscal-cliff negotiations.
“In my view, we all agree that we're not going to raise taxes on people who make less than $250,000 dollars, so we should just take them out of this discussion right now,” Cole said after a meeting of the GOP Conference. “Continue to fight against any rate increases; continue to try to work, honestly, for a much bigger deal.”
NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro discuss the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations and how Grover Norquist's no-tax-increase pledge plays into the discussion. Plus, what happened when Susan Rice made a visit to The Hill.
Cole, the deputy whip and former National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, first made the suggestion during a closed-door "whip meeting" yesterday, which was first reported by Politico last night. His comments have drawn criticism from those in his party.
Boehner is not the only Republican to disagree with Cole. Rep. Sean Duffy said on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown Wednesday morning that he believed Cole’s views are in the “minority” of House Republicans. In fact, interviews with other GOP members confirms that.
The lack of support for Cole’s proposal highlights the gap that persists between the White House and House Republicans with the clock ticking toward the so-called “fiscal cliff,” when all Americans would see tax increases and there would be a round a severe Defense and domestic spending cuts unless a deal is struck.
“Cherry picking provisions and rates right now doesn’t solve the problem, and they're not a serious deficit solution,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) told reporters today after a meeting of the Republican Conference.
Brady, who sits on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said he is advocating for comprehensive tax reform, to be completed next year after all rates would be extended.
“I think we're strongly unified behind no tax increases on New Year’s Day,” he said.
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) echoed Brady’s concerns, saying he believes the majority of the Republican Conference, including himself, is opposed to the idea of decoupling the Bush tax rates.
“We have to make tough decisions about our tax rates,” Labrador said. “We have to make tough decisions about our spending; we have to make tough decisions about our deficit. Let's do that today. There's nothing courageous about saying let's raise taxes on a few people today.”
In August, House Democrats proposed a bill that would do exactly what Cole proposed, but it failed 257-170 with no Republicans voting for the bill, and 19 Democrats voting against it.
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Didn't Boner and Cantor increase the size of their taxpayer paid staff when they took over the house? Real spending restraint out of the party of borrow and spend...borrow and spend...borrow and spend
Obama's massive increase? I think you got him confused with Bush.
obama has added more National Debit in 3 3/4 years than President Bush did in 8 years. President Bush NEVER ran a yearly deficit of more than 500 billion. obama has been 1.2 trillion or more every year.
Gawd you conservatives live in a fact free zone... The only reason the Obama deficit is higher is because he put on the books the spending for 2 wars and a prescription giveaway that Georgie tried to keep hidden...
Dave----what plantet have you been living on? Bush "forgot" to add his two wars into the budget, Obama added that 10 trillion to the budget....but that doesn't make it his debt! That's like saying, you ate dinner at a restaurant last night, walked out without paying the bill, I paid it and now I'm stuffed!
ok, for you simple minded democraps out there who don't know how things work. Yes, President Bush didn't budget for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, but that money had to be borrowed from someone, so since it isn't a budget covered expense or exceed the annual budget It was JUST ADDED to the annual deficit President Bush ran. So again, President Bush never ran a yearly deficit of great than 500 billion & that was a cost that included both wars.
Obama is onlt running 1 war (badly I might say), but geeez he has all thos other little pesky drone incursions going on & he is running a annual deficit of over 1 trillion a year.
Dave, you really think that $500 billion was the cost of two wars? It is estimated that Afghanistan alone cost us $88 billion for this year alone! Multiply that by 10 years and than realize that Iraq was a much larger force and cost more per year than Afghanistan did, you're talking trillions.
Boehner is an idiot and will put this country into a depression before he gets done!!!! Get ready
Whoa!!!! Didn't we already have this fight? Didn't the republicans lose it....and they have learned absolutely nothing! Unbelievable. John Boehner, you didn't "win" the house, you gerrymandered it! Even a lot of republicans want these tax hikes. Be honest with us now, John.....what does Grover Norquist have on you?
It is very possible that in a week or two's time, the republicans will have a negative approval rating....never been done before, not even possible; but, they're working on it!!!!
Sueb1, reach up with both hands grab the side of your head & pull it back. You have your face shoved so far up obamas ass you have no idea what you are talking about!
Dave, thank you for adding such a profound comment, you added to the depth of the conversation, as usual!
Complete propaganda nonsense. If you honestly believe the top 2 percent can save this country you are mislead. Even if you did this 2% and then taxed the top one percent at a rate of 75% it would not be enough.
I created a budget surplus in the 90s
hmm, the economy was much stronger in the 90's, we didn't have 1 trillion $$$ deficits every year & we had a President who knew how to work with both parties.
Boehner and his klan need to be made irrelevent. Time to make a mockery of them all.
If we end up going over the fiscal cliff, all the Republicans causing it should be arrested for terrorism as that is just what they are doing. Boehner is a dick head that needs to be REMOVED FROM OFFICE for life.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SPOKE in this last election, DO YOUR JOB BOEHNER OR YOUR FIRED.
Willie, George Bush won by....getting less votes than Gore....however he had enough political capital to lie us into a whole war. I'm thinking a 4%, 4 million vote, 126 electoral vote victory is enough capital for Obama to get a tax cut extension through......the republicans have already lost so much on this front; they will lose what little credibility they have left.
over 2% and 126 electoral votes is not a slim margin.
Actually G.W. was re-elected by the same margin of votes as Obama's re-election with about the same approval ratings. How did *that* 2nd term work out for us? Hopefully this President does not continue down the same path.
Further proof the GOP is owned by the weathly. Using the middle class as a bargaining chip to help their big pocket.
I'd also think that extending this cut would help the lion's share of small business owners. Many don't pocket 250K when all is said and done. Wouldn't they be helped by this cut. I have several in my own family. They make decent money and run their own businesses. But I'd be hard pressed to say it's quarter of a million.
This is just a tool for big money to make even more.
But the Democrat's plan of going over the cliff and then attempting a new middle-class tax cut isn't using the middle class as a bargaining chip. Let's face it, we are a bargaining chip for both parties. Always have been, always will be (until they, both parties, completely destroy us). But that's what happens to pawns, they are eventually sacrificed.
Let's separate this "tax increases on the rich" from "debt reduction" - there is no correlation here. In July Obama released his 10-year spending Review outlook. Including the tax increases he wanted, his "budget" projected an increase in the national debt of roughly $8.5 trillion over those 10 years to, in 2022, a total national debt of roughly $25.8 trillion. Today Obama says the increased taxes on the rich is part of his "balanced" approach to debt reduction - and then, barely taking a breath, says we need to spend more on education, manufacturing and green energy stuff. In his 10-year budget, the baseline spending over this period increases 57%. Let's be clear about this - his "tax the rich" has one, and only one, desired result - income redistribution. The amount of increased revenues that these increased taxes would bring in are dwarfed by the trillion dollar plus yearly deficits this guy is running. The ultimate goal of all this is to bury this country in debt till the only possible solution, and then one not guaranteed to work, is the imposition of a massive national sales tax (a VAT in the EU). Such a 20% tax in this country would, by all estimates, raise roughly $80 billion PER PERCENT. Do the math - this would be a tax that could raise close to 2 trillion a year. And guess what government is going to do with that...and you have a wrong answer if part of it is "debt reduction". There is no amount of "balanced" increased revenue streams that can possibly cover this increased spending on one hand and pay down the debt at the same time. People voted for this, and now the ride begins. But if anyone thinks Obama gives a twit about the debt you can't be serious. You doubt this? Take a look at his 10-year Review he released in July and tell me again.
The 2% should be taxed but not to the extent that Obama wants to tax them. But he does not want to give up any entitlement programs. Why can't both be done. Personally I am sick of supporting others that are to lazy to get off their duff and work.
Your parroting of Romney's 47% crap is getting tiresome. Oh, and it just so happens that the majority of those 47%....are republicans from red states, veterans and seniors......
Just to what extent does Obama want to tax them?
Reverting to the Clinton rates would mean an additional 4.6% on all income after the first $250K.
That's right, everybody gets the lower tax rates on all income including the first $250k.
Why was it reasonable during the Clinton era but not now?
Social Security is for retirees. They've already worked their entire lives. Medicare and Medicaid are for the retired elderly, poor (most of whom work) and poor children.
Boner's just pathetically trying to give the Koch brothers some sort of return on the millions they spent trying to buy an election. I can't blame them for trying, but I can still condemn them.
I look forward to seeing the extinction of the Republican party in 2014.
These stupid-ass message boards are why Fox doesn't do them anymore. Fuzzy Red Snatch from Roselle is a paid hack, the first to reply to every story. The nauseating reach arounds she shares with Patriotic American U.S.A., Alaskagirl, Pigotry, and SeekingSanity leads me to believe that they all sit in the same dingy office breathing each other's stench while they spew their misguided bile to all that will read it. I stop by to read it and try to understand the perspective, but can only take so much. My guess is that none of these wipes actually do anything to help further society.
Fox killed their boards because they would much rather have you trolling other people's boards with their propaganda.
psssst... you lost the election.
You're damn right Fox doesn't do message posting KC, if these stupid ass message boards disturb you why even bother? And besides on Fox they wouldn't even print anything negative said about ANY Republican Candidate or Speaker or Congressman or Tea Partier, etc, etc. And yes, your team Romney/Ryan 2012 lost. Don't worry, in 4 years you can try again.
reading these comments are far better than any school day on the playground. It's his fault, no his fault. Crazy stuff. Remember ALL politicians are owned baby!
why we did not get rid of bohner?
i have a little opinion about why you have to increase the wealthiest american tax rate, it is simple. do you want a goverment like hugo chavez, correa, castro in power? just continuos the tax rate and the inequality between the mass 98 % and the wealthiest 2% of the population. make this for sure: the more the difference between the 2% and the 98 % the more likely we will have a goverment like those oligarcs in latin america. the richiest people in USA has no coincience what will happen when the majority of the people has to struggle to put bread at the table for their family. usa has been a teaching master for those countries looking to be democratic. we all know what happen when goverment do not control grow, banks and people with money take advantage of the lack of knowledge of the masses and lure then to buy what they do not have the money to pay later on, very deceptive what the big banks and big money did. they were the only ones whom make money out of the misery of others and the sad portion of this is that they knew what is going to happen and the goverment let it happens....reflexion on that, please!!!!
Very very few of these Rich folks have ever wanted for anything but we have children going to bed hungry every night. What a sad commentary on the some americans, yes thats a lower case a.
There are no children in America going to bed hungry unless they have irresponsible parents. Obviously you havent been to "other" countries.
What would YOU consider an income that is so low that children go to bed hungry in America?
Willie, you seem to be the perfect American in all your postings and your ranting is tiresome. I don't worry about who is getting food stamps, welfare, healthcare, etc, etc. If you add all of this up it doesn't even come close to the Billions that the US gives out to NEEDY Countries every year, no one is taking any food off your table. You are just upset the Obama beat your man RoMoney! You will get another chance to lose again in 4 more years!! Hillary 2012!!
Yeah, Willie, there are thousands of parents out there who are sitting on their lazy asses and letting their kids go to bed hungry....do you really believe that....oh that's right, you believe that all democrats are takers and only those on the right love their families and their children.
Correct Sue, Willie is so brainwashed that is actually what he believes. He sounds like a lunatic to me, I don't see why people with loose screws like him even waste their time on NBC, he should be on Fox where only the TRUE message is spoken to the folks, you know the people like Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly, etc, etc. They are speaking for the Folks, they know who they are right Willie?
OH PULEEZE, Obama needs to grow a pair and use his executive orders to get this fiscal cliff done and forget about Bohner and his thugs. Especially after signing Grover's petition, What a treasonous move. Time the president do what we voted him back in to do. Just go ahead and tell the GOP where they can go and pass his plan. Heck, he already won. What are they going to do, whine and cry some more?
why not let the tax cuts expire on Jan 1?
1. Obama was re-elected on "I will let the taxes for people making over 250k expire"
2. introduce a bill on jan. 2 that gives the 98% a tax cut to all people earning 250k or less and they get their tax cuts back.
3. republicans say this will hurt small business? are you kidding me? most of these millionaires that use llc or s-corps as pass through are one man shops - hedge fund managers, lawyers, doctors etc.. they don't hire people.
4. eliminate "carry forward interest" this is the biggest scam in modern history. let them pay the same payroll taxes like the rest of us.
5. if dem don't do nothing the bush tax cuts expire. done. check mate . I don't understand just let the republicans cry and hop up and down but they don't have any cards they are just bluffing with no pair.
the dem. has the "nuts" as they say in hold'em poker. so let the republicans bet into the dems. and lets just wait for the river card.
The rather obvious alternatiove to the $250K cap on tax rate increases, would be to go to additional progressive rates above a higher number and/or treat capital gains income as ordinary earned income. Shelia Bair (former FDIC Chairwoman) has calculated that the latter would add roughly $90 billion/year to revenue.
Rep Brady says lets extend ALL the tax rates now.....like WE want. Then LATER we'll talk about what YOU want. Well sure they will. They and the country trust you.....NOT.
You didn't see that the Democrats control the White house and the Senate???
You are going to wreck the economy for the benifit of 2pct of the people????
Why the hell do you think you LOST???
So, how much should the middle class be taxed then? Does anybody have any idea? Everyone si screaming that ONLY the rich should be taxed. Well, what should the middle class taxes be set at? What percentage?
Exactly. Just as i have stated and of course I got no response. I know dozens and dozens of people who get checks every Spring that are MUCH more than they paid in taxes. By thousands of dollars!!! My brother is one of them. Every year!!
If they made more money, they would pay more. The Earned Income Tax Credit is basically a welfare program that encourages work...just as a lower capital gains tax encourages investment...at the other end of the scale.
Stone 6,
But it rarely encourages work. It encourages shopping sprees. At least that is what my brother does with his Earned Income Tax money!! Quite frankly, that is the government agenda anyway!! Go spend it and give it right back in sales tax.
Another thing...how patheitc that you have to encourage people with free tax money to go get a damn job!! If anything, the capital gains tax makes MUCH more sense!! The other rationale just sounds like you are trying to motivate lazy people.
No...what is shameful is that they cannot make a "livable wage." If your brother were smart, he would "invest" in himself and obtain the training/education for a higher paying job...and it is up to the private sector to "create" those job opportunties. If they refuse to do so...for WHATEVER reason...then government has no choice but to assume a part of their responsibility...and will be driven there by the vote of an economically declining majority.
Jeez even Warren Buffett, a man who knows a whole lot more about money than Boehner, says that they need to extend the tax cuts and raise taxes on the 2%. The Republicans just don't get it!
Buffet "gets it." He understands that the wealthy could be alot worse off if popular sentiment turns completely against them...to include higher brackets and the elimination of capital gain breaks. Push too hard on either social security or Medicare and that becomes the next step.
Why the republicans are so adamant about protecting the rich is beyond me. If you're making over $250,000 a year, you are not a small business. You are, however, by any definition part of the rich. The average American household income is $48,000 per year. Making over 5 times that is rich. And by the way, those at the top are paying an effective tax rate lower than the average income people. The tax brackets mean nothing once you file your taxes. End of story.
John
Why would President Obama jeopardize the middle class cuts to raise taxes on the wealthy?
MJ--you have it backward, the republicans are jeopardizing the middle class tax cut extension to protect the 1%. It's like deja vu all over again!
Unless a better deal is reached, we should stick with the current deal. It appears that the Democrats are reneging the promise to compromise and the sequestration.
No surprise there...once a Boner always a Boner...
Proud American - I agree - I also look forward to seeing the extinction of the Republican party in 2014.
KLuib - Don't they always whine and cry???
What scares me is that we need a second party to counterbalance the dems. No one party should have unfettered power. The republicans, though, seemed determined to commit suicide and that will leave us with a vacuum that will be good for no one.
Sue,
Now although I do not agree with most of your other posts, this one is spot on. Yet, you have Dems and Libs calling for an end to the Repub party. Our government is based on checks and balances (a system BOTH parties are unable to accomplish).
The problem is, you cannot contradict yourself. By making sure only YOUR needs are fed ( by taking YOU out of the tax increase), you are just as bad as the rich. Capitalism IS the best way to sustain the MAJORITY of the people and ensure a society is in it for the long haul. Extreme capitalism is adverse in so many ways, but socialist type policies are absolutely "nails in the coffin".
Democratic systems have a built-in method of self-correction...called elections. Sixty Democratic seats in the Senate and a renewed House majority will bring an overhaul in the Republican Party...or their complete extinction, to be replaced by something else.
First it has to sink in that the Republican right-wing media (Fox and Talk Radio), for the most part lied to them...in knowingly predicting a huge Romney landslide, which turned out to be self-defeating.
Rob - retaining the middle class tax cut is for stimulus, to prevent a slide back into recession. Middle class income will be "spent" faster than upper bracket disposable income, which - in the absence of aggregate consumer demand - will just sit in a bank savings account or money market account or into foreign markets.
Yes, and if the Repubs have to act more like Dems (which are borderline liberals these days), then how much farther left will Dems have to go to actually be different? How much further will Libs have to go to separate themselves from Dems and so on and so on.
Rob, the thing is that we need to be somewhere in between extreme Capitalism and socialism. Raising the tax rates on the top 1% will not bring us to socialism. Just as the truth is that cutting spending will not kill us all; but taxing the middle class that is barely surviving now is not the way to go. The ultra-rich will not even miss the 4.6% increase....but $2000 a year will mean a lot to most of the people in the middle class.
Rob - I think you are mistinterpreting, probably by comparing today's "liberals" to pre Great Depression liberals, who were fighting to end child labor and secure the right of women to vote. It's the Republicans who have moved to the right. Romney's problem was that when, during the debates, he tried to move toward the "center" to capture the independent vote, he began sounding like Obama, who had already secured the "center," while Romney was busy winning the Republican nomination and trying to sound like an ultra-conservative.
Sueb1 - I think it's called "social democracy," along the lines of northern Western Europe, particularly, the Germans.
Well, I saw all of that clearly and for dignity purposes Romney should have stuck to his guns.
However, I certainly have witnessed an EXTREME shift to the left from Libs and Dems. It's a gimme, gimme, anything goes, let everybody in and all lifestyles are okay type of party. Go talk to your average neighbor and see how they will praise Obamacare and assistance programs, but then tell you about how they will itemize, itemize, itemize in order to pay less taxes. It's a mass hypocrisy that people live and that people think the rich can afford. But, they cant.
The Dems and Libs HAVE become the party of "give" just to get the vote. Even Obama was criticized early in his first term when he said, "Dont make excuses". There was a big uproar over that. Unfortunately, this is the mindset of the new America.
"Dont tell me Im wrong, dont tell me Im mediocre, dont hold me accountable...just tell me Im disadvantaged and I deserve something".
Boehner is only one man. Why is one man holding up progress when we can run him out on a rail? I have a hunch he is a hard-line bigot. He is representing the 1%? We are the 99%! Is he blind to this? This raises a whole lot of questions.
Douglas, unfortunately I don't think Boehner is a bad man or a bigot, I think he's not good at his job. The truth is, he only pulls this stuff because he can't get up the votes from "his" party.
Boehner is an Alcoholic and Chain Smoker and when he gets sick he get's free healthcare, it's okay as long as he is getting it. Other than that his Masters have given him his marching orders and he is not going to do much to help fix the problem.
Douglas,
Stop the divide. Hell, by the end of this decade we will all be able to claim bigotry if people keep calling it out like auctioneers.
"So and so has a fat toe and that man over there said "toe". He must HATE people with big toes". He is a BIGOT!!
Yeah, it's gotten that bad.
I say Obama and the Democrats walk away from the table until the Republicans get serious. If the previous tax breaks expire and the government cuts kick in automatically, so be it. You can't tell me all of these Republicans come from such rich districts that the majority earn over $250,000 a year. Where are all these places?
When did the Democrats arrive at the table in earnest?
President Obama claimed to be open-minded and willing to entertain new ideas. Meanwhile he takes Social Security off the table and demands rate increases for the wealthy.
Got compromise?
As it stands right now, Social Security does NOT increase the deficit.,
So...why are you talking about Social Security?
The President has submitted a budget plan every year. Congress has failed to act.
Yes he did present a budget. It did not pass, in fact for the past 2 years ZERO democrats even voted in favor of Mr Obama's proposed budget. The House did pass a budget, but Harry Reid and the Senate refused to bring them up for vote in the Senate.
Presidential Budget proposals never pass. They aren't expected to. They are requests in non legislative language that sketch out the rough outlines of the way the Executive branch interprets the budget priorities.
It is Congress' job to draft the legislation, reconcile differences between the chambers and pass the bills for the President's signature.
The vote you are referring to was a procedural vote to stop considering a specific proposal so that a new proposal with stronger deficit cutting measures could be considered.
The House has been adding amendments and riders to the spending bills that it knows cannot pass the Senate in order to obstruct the President's and the Democratic Party's agenda.