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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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One thing is very clear to me. The deficit is not going to go down just by increasing the tax on top 2%. The taxes have to increase across the board.
Until economic cycle increases, the total tax revenue cannot increase. For that to happen, the manufacturing has to come back, which actually creates positive value in the economic cycle. Businesses have to be encouraged.
Spending is rampant and it needs to stop. There is no other way.
Inflation has to be recognized... we have way more than 3% inflation, it is just being hidden under decrease of quality and decrease of quantity in the packaging.
I vote for tax cuts to expire acroos the board. I vote for spending freeze, anything more than the tax collection is a moral crime. i vote to bring maufacturing back and support new businesses to come up. None of the party right now is looking at the issue wholistically. Commonsense is in short supply.
I say get that F----- cry baby Boehner the hell out of congress. And, take that suck a-- Kantor along with Mr. ugly McConnell along with him. These guys are crazy and are puppets of the Tea Party.
The only sequestration that needs to been done is the sequestration of congress. Congress should be sequestered every year in a small room until they can come up with a budget. If we can sequester jurors until they get their job done then congress, who are our employees and work for us, should be able to be sequestered until they get their job done.
Just 3 of 386 filibuters..............1) health care for 911 responders that fell ill due to toxins and other hazardous materials they contacted during clean up
2)bring the jobs home bill which would give companys a 20% tax break for bringing jobs home and further tax incentives for building new plants in America. Penalties for shipping jobs overseas
3) jobs for veterans act which would of created 20,000 plus jobs for veterans of Iraqi and afghnaistan wars
these are just 3 filibusters out of 386 that the republicans/terrorists/anti-american party decided to filibuster. They hid behind the responders during 911. They sent those veterans to war. They don't care about jobs in the USA. I want to see all of their birth certificates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are 100% spot-on! And they want to know why the Congress has the lowest rating in history.
They also killed the Cost of Living Increase for the Vets. The GOP cares about the wealthy, nothing and no one else. They have proven it over and over and over again.
Thanks for a very intelligent post!
No apologies from ANY Republicans.....This Failure-in-chief has been an unmitigated financial disaster with the worst economy since the Great depression....complete with TRIPLED fuel prices, DOUBLED the number of Americans on food Stamps, more Americans on welfare than at ANY point in American history and single handedly put THOUSANDS of Americans out of work in the Coal industry and NOW THINKS he has a free hand to continue to spend like a drunken sailor in port on failed social programs for illegals and deadbeats off the backs of the American taxpayer????? If Liberals think that Hussein now has a free hand to continue to devastate the American economy...you would be a raving lunatic. The house is firmly Republican with a boost in Conservative Governors as well....so to think Republicans should roll over for yet MORE failure is a bad joke....
Hey, Scott! Gas was over 4 bucks a gallon when Bush reigned supreme, too. But if it makes you feel good to make crap up, why not make up a budget alternative? The food stamps feed hungry children, mostly in the southern states, Scott. Republicans, while refusing to pass any jobs legislation, wanted to reduce the food stamp programs by 32 billion last year. When food stamps are the last hope for Americans out of work, you support the greed of corporations and the greed of the rich over the actual needs of the poor, who would love to have a job in America, if Mitt Romney hadn't shipped all of their jobs to Communist China!
Get a real life and read some real facts soon. Your ilk is killing the American dream! Your pessimism of the lower class is stopping our nation from pulling it out of the ditch the GOP put us into. Austerity never works. It never worked in America, and it isn't working in any country overseas.
Cutting entitlements can never increase the public's ability to buy products, that corporations need to sell! Austerity is spiralling our nation toward a third world economy. If you had any sense, you would understand it. It isn't that hard to undertand.
Giving the rich more money will never create more demand for products if people can't afford to buy them, Scott.
Were you home-schooled?
Scott,
Please explain, in detail, how the president controls the price of gas. Don't use the Keystone Pipeline as part of the explanation, as it was a REPUBLICAN governor in Nebraska who asked Obama to block it.
Most of us are under the impression that world demand, and OPEC control those prices, but, it seems you know something we don't, so please, educate us on how exactly Obama controls it, and also, why isn't the price the same all over the country?
It really makes no differance what we say nobody in this country can see pass the end of their nose.And nobody is ever going to let the @!$%#s in washington see em. so what is the big deal. fed-up with the whole bunch of tou...
Obama has a real plan which he presented to the people. We accepted it by reelecting him! Now we need the teabaggers and big money patsies in Congress to serve "we the people" who put them there. The need is to grow the economy and create jobs while putting a dent in the deficit. We know where those tax cuts for the top 1% have taken us and we have had enough of it. How much longer are the top 1% going to be running this country?
I hope you're not referring to government jobs? they produce nothing, and contribute nothing to GDP. Your dogma gets tiring after a while. Grow the economy and create jobs by spiking taxes on successful entrepreneurs who CREATE those jobs. Shows your fundamental lack of understanding. Just keep spewing the dogma.
IDIOTS!!! I am so glad that we did NOT vote these FOOLS in, I can't tell ya! Protecting the 2% against the betterment of an entire nation when it has already been proved for decades now that prosperity for the whole country does not start from the top and grow down! What will it take? WHEN will they learn???
Give tax breaks to the 90+ % and they will spend the overage and help this stagnant economy. The GOP is proving themselves incapable of learning ANYTHING! How STUPID can they get? Are they so hateful of the poor that they will topple the entire nation to prove it? The Republican brand is beyond help!!!
Right on...
the most depressing things about this is that most liberals out there A). don't actually make the money they are trying so desperately to spend, and B). never took an economics class in their lives (except for watching Robin Hood re-runs in art appreciation class). No clue what drives a standard of living in a country. NO clue what the impact will be of punishing people simply for being successful. Your standard of living comes from fundamental productivity, how efficiently a good or service can be produced. People that consume without producing disrupt that simple truth. Brings back to mind Joe Biden's quote "those republicans never worked a day in their lives". Painting success as evil so you can justify spiking income taxes without appearing to be parasites. I wonder if BHO lets his kids spend money like he's trying to spend my money.
You have GOT to be kidding! Why is spending so different when the money is spent on war? Are you serious? This nation is still trying to bail out from the two unfruitful and unnecessary wars that Dubya led America into! How in the hell was that nonsense profitable for anyone? Republicans hate to see a red cent spent on helping those in need but will happily spend billions upon billions on war, death, and global destruction. Now all of a sudden, now that the Democrats are in office; here come the tears? Gimme a break for Pete's sake! Now its time to WORRY about spending? GOP'er's are full of sh!t!!!
Economics class my black ass! Pres Obama can spend whatever he wants on his lovely family...its my money too! I just don't want him spending MY MONEY on nuclear proliferation!!!
Right on...
More Proof that the GOP is completely out of touch with the middle class. The GOP is holding the middle class hostage so they can negotiate better terms for the rich! I can't believe it!
Basically, they are going to cause a recession, then blame it on Obama and the Dems, and in two years try to take over congress.
This idiotic plan of the GOP will backfire. Your lies did not win you the white house, and in two years the entire congress will be Blue if the GOP gives the middle class the shaft!
Keep the working people safe, then you rich A-holes can argue over how many billions you want to make. Burn the middle class at your expense GOP.
another all too familair whitewashing by the obama shills pretending to be news here at nbc. The Republicans are trying to prevent EVERYONE from being slammed by more obama tax hikes . obama want to raise EVERYONES taxes - there is absolutly no reason obama cant pass tax breaks for the middle class, obama lies again pretending its the Republicans who are holding the middle class hostage - its obama - always has been. You dunces voted for this turd - your getting EXACTLY what you deserve. Unfortunatly - the rest of us get dragged down with you
What a bunch of bull@!$%# by bonehead. Most small business owners wished they were making $250k a year. So his bs excuse doesn't even fly. It just shows how disconnected he is to us.
Why doesn't the gop get a new speaker with his feet on the ground and get rid of bonehead. His crappy partisan crap is only to soothe his ego and ambitions. Wouldn't it be great for someone like him to give a dam about someone besides all the people making more than $250K.
Small business isn't suffering from high taxes, it's being smothered by the Big Warehouse Giants like Walmart who manage to finagle tax breaks from local politicians. It all trickles down from Washington.
The GW Bush era is over. "Temporary" tax breaks are obsolete dinosaurs, along with Boehner and his GOP losers. If they want to push the U.S. over the fiscal cliff to protect a minority of wealthy parasites, their lifetime careers will be tied to the consequences.
I agree cottoncat; could not have said it better myself! For this commentary, you have won a 4 star...
Right on...★★★★
What I fail to understand is how any of you can argue that those making over 250,000$ a year shouldn't pay a higher tax rate. All of you act like this tax rate has always been the tax rate. In fact this is one of the lowest tax rates since before the great depression. There are only 226 families that MAKE that much money. Your saying that the Koch Bro's who are in the top 10 billionaires cant afford to pay a little more? They dont pay enough as it is they get so many tax deductions and have sooo many loopholes from George W that your minds are boggled with bull@!$%#. Truth is our country is full of greedy men that have all the power, look at Boners suite and ask yourself how much did that thing cost? And how much does his ridiculous fake tan cost?
Some of you ask why cant everyone pay more in taxes. I dont know have any of you asking that made under 20k a year? I worked for Tricom a multi-million dollar company and they only paid me 20k a year. I paid almost 5k in taxes which was almost a quarter of my entire wealth. People who make under 36k a year cant afford to have their taxes raised they are having a hard enough time making enough money to feed their starving children. Yet none of you that argue your stupid worthless points about how billionaires cant afford to pay more taxes and cutting their taxes will create jobs are completely blind and battered by our worthless media who want you to believe its going to break their budgets.
Third..whoever said that small business owners are in the top 2% your on crack. Every single small business owner I have ever met doesn't make over 250k a year after taxes and payroll. In fact I doubt very many of them you know even do. Most places break even after all of their expenses or make maybe 40 to 50k a year. Fact of the matter is 226 families make more than 250 a year after taxes and payroll and all of the deductions. SO maybe you should think about what is best for our country. Going back to the tax rates of Clinton which had our country doing better then it ever had done, or staying under Bushes tax rates and NOT changing ANYTHING.
so you are saying that only 226 families in America make $250,000 a year? Even if that was true, then how do you forsee that getting 226 families to pay more in taxes is even going to come close to paying for anything? You say that you paid 25% of your income in taxes, what state do you live in, because the federal rates are:
[Tax Rate Schedule X, Internal Revenue Code section 1(c)]
Going back to the Clinton rate, you do know that if that happens even your taxes will go up.
its not the rep or the dem its both that are in office wasting our tax dollars the rich and the poor (any one paying taxes) or that has paid his whole life we should all be pissed because we are all going to pay and they will keep on wasting more and more till they are stopped good luck america.
Boehner has put forth the Rep. package, however he's talking about nothing new from the GOP. He would like to give up the deductions that the rich are getting. The money that is saved from the allowed deductions would theoretically go back to creat our working force. Isn't that the same as roll down economics? If so we know that that never worked. Why does he continue to waste time, let's move forward with the Obama plan. The people of United States have spoken during the election. Get over it Mr. Boehner.
The Grand Old Party is DONE!!!!!!!
The top 2% have been paying lower tax rate for over a decade. The system has allowed them to get wealthier without paying the 20%-30% rate of solid middle class citizens. If everyone had the same rate at the beginning of the year 2000 the deficit and debt would be fully manageable.
We should audit the DOD, Medicare, Medicaid, the SSA, and the Fed. First, however, we should give the middle-class Americans security in knowing that their taxes will not be raised.
In reality America needs to tax Wall Street for causing such a mess. Just a penny per transaction would make short order of the national debt.
Hocus-pocus! Presto-change-o! More miracle math that ignores the needs of the many in favor of the greed of the few. There is no such thing as a 2% majority except in the warped minds that make up the Republican Party. Thirty years of trying it their way has only shown that their way doesn't work for ALL of the people!
The way they see things, education is an entitlement program but a new yacht is not! The people are fed up with being left out and left with the crumbs from their high-priced meals. It is impossible that those making $250,000 are struggling when many families in America are surviving on $25,000 a year or less! The GOP ideologue reflects thinking from the past; thinking from the days of Lords and surfs when the peasants worked like oxen while the nobles dined on the sweet meat of freshly slain venison. The Republican plan is actually quite simple; if you are not wealthy; we should either serve them 0N BENT KNEES, WITHOUT PAY; OR DIE! I thought this past election woke them up...but yet do they sleep!
Right on...
Bohner (spelling on purpose) is worse than Romney. He's not just stickin' it the 74% but to the 98%. The worst majority leader in the history of these United States.
Boehner is at best 4th worse, the former Speaker of the House Nancy "We Have to Pass the Bill So That You Can Find Out What Is In It" Pelosi , the Senate Majority Leader Harry "I hid that bill up my ass" Reid and the empty suit in the WH all top the list of failures in leadership.
Look it is all about the damn pledge to Grover. They have no plans on breaking that pledge. They bow down to anything Grover says. The loop holes for the wealthy will cut the deficit 30 billion dollars. Where is the other 770 billion coming from?... The poor the elderly and the middle class. Protect the wealthy at all cost. Damn the wealthy does not create jobs. The Republicans have been preaching that for years and the trickle down don't work.
I think I'll have to disagree on that one. Grover is still in place today, but every day we see another GOP inching their way to the exit. By 2014, everybody will be saying "Grover who?". Eventually the GOP will opt for survival. Thay may be greedy, but they are not stupid. As for all of these people "going out of business" because of a 5% tax increase, oh really? It doesn't take a genius to realize they will not give up 95% of their income to avoid a 5% increase in taxes. Also, I have to believe that a lot of business people realize that putting more money in the pockets of their customers (the middle class) will more than offset that tax increase.
Boehner: "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."
Why is it the governments problem that people with businesses fail to create a LLC business or corporate entity for the business? Why run a company using a personal income filing? Make them file as a business, as they should, then none of this would really affect them.
Boehner, You will go down in the history books as a footnote to being the sole reason for the destruction and end to the Republican Party. And to that I say, "good riddance"!
Whats wrong...you don't want to pay more taxes either? How about increase taxes and make cuts. balance budget....nah...just tax and spend..
Adopt a flat tax rate on income which would eliminate 75% of the IRS, cut the bloated bureaucracy in Washington D.C. by 50%, stop subsidizing the rich with tax dollars collected from the less fortunate, and make a balanced budget mandatory for the federal government. Perhaps if we started with some basic concepts that everyone understands a framework would begin to develop. I realize it is a lot to hope for since common sense appears to have abandoned everyone in Washington, however, we have to start somewhere.
What's the big deal?
If republicans cause all of us to pay more taxes...vote them out of office in 2014.
Pretty simple, really.
But, Mr. Obama won't keep those increased tax rates anyway; he'll let the Bush tax Cuts expire, then re-institute the same level of cuts for the middle class, using Executive Priviledge. No republican is stupid enough to be against it, The POTUS comes out smelling like roses, The Great Unwashed is satisfied with the 30 or 40 bucks a week extra, and then, come 2014, the democrats can hold up the budget cuts and say "look, look what THE REPUBLICANS DID TO OUR COUNTRY".
lmao i can't wait for 2014!