Dems Unlikely to Repeal Bush Tax Cuts

[Dos Equis]

They have seen the light? 

Dems Unlikely to Repeal Bush Tax Cuts
Thursday, 02 Sep 2010
 
Democrats in Congress are poised to play a leading role this month in thwarting their party's effort to raise income tax rates on the wealthy.

Tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 expire at the end of this year. President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have been eager to extend the breaks for individuals who earn less than $200,000 annually and joint filers who make less than $250,000. Those who earn more would pay higher, pre-2001 rates starting next year.

However, a small but growing number of moderate Democrats are balking at boosting taxes on the rich. Many face electorates that recoil at the mention of any tax increase. Some represent areas that are loaded with wealthier taxpayers. Further, some incumbent senators who don't face voters this fall are reluctant to increase taxes on anyone while the economy remains sluggish.

Without their support, the push to raise rates on the rich probably will fail.

"The economy is very weak right now. Raising taxes will lower consumer demand at a time when we want people putting more money into the economy," said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who isn't seeking re-election.

Democratic leaders still vow a big effort this month to boost the top tax brackets, now 33 and 35 percent, back to 36 and 39.6 percent, the rates that were in effect in the 1990s. Both House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who faces a tough re-election fight, want a vote before the election Nov. 2.

"We still expect to have a bill on the (Senate) floor at some point in September," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. "Whether Republicans will allow us to pass anything is a whole other story."

"The speaker and the president have been clear they want to extend the middle-class tax cuts because they have the greatest economic benefit," Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said.

Many Democrats and Republicans are eager for a tax cut battle, seeing it as emblematic of each party's economic principles.

"Now the administration is calling for a massive tax hike on small businesses in the middle of a recession," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who maintains that higher rates on the wealthy would hit small business hard, a point the Obama administration disputes.

"So it's no surprise," McConnell added, "that most Americans think the country is on the wrong track and that Democrat policies have failed to do anything to fix their top concern, the economy."

Democratic leaders are convinced that voters won't buy that argument. Not only will the public back higher taxes for the rich, but "we have an opportunity to generate $700 billion that could go to deficit reduction and badly needed programs," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., a co-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus.

The middle class-only extension is thought to have strong support in the House, where Democrats have a huge majority, but some Democrats are reluctant.

Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., represents the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, one of the nation's wealthiest districts. Median family income there in 2008 was $117,892, well above the national average of $63,211. He said that repealing the top rates would have political consequences.

"Sometimes we forget how we became the majority. We did it by winning some affluent districts," he said.

The bigger problem for Democrats looms in the Senate, where Majority Leader Reid's immediate problem is getting the 60 votes needed to cut off debate on the measure. Democrats control 59 seats, and at least three of them — Bayh, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Kent Conrad of North Dakota — have signaled that they won't back a permanent repeal of the tax cuts for the wealthy.

They suggest a way out of a stalemate — temporarily extending all the expiring tax rates — but so far the leadership isn't going along.

Sean Neary, a spokesman for Senate Budget Committee Chairman Conrad, said the senator backed such an extension "for now."

"The general rule of thumb is that you do not raise taxes or cut spending during an economic downturn. That would be counterproductive," Conrad said.

Nelson also offered what's become the centrist Democratic mantra. He, too, said he'd back extending the tax breaks for the wealthy "for at least a period of time because raising taxes in a weak economy could impair recovery."

That stand could be even more popular with Democratic candidates for the Senate who aren't incumbents. The hottest races are in conservative states, such as Kentucky, where Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway are battling for the seat now held by Republican Sen. Jim Bunning.

Of the expiring tax cuts for the wealthy, Conway spokeswoman Allison Haley said that he "believes we should extend them now, especially when so many Kentucky families and small businesses are struggling under this recession."

In Missouri, Republican U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt and Democrat Robin Carnahan are in a tight race. Despite a welcoming embrace with Obama at a Kansas City fundraiser in July, Carnahan said last week that she wanted to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone.

"Now is not the time to raise taxes," she said.

In Indiana, U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., who's seeking to replace Bayh, told the Evansville Courier & Press this summer that all the Bush-era tax cuts should become permanent.

That position makes sense, said Brian Vargus, a professor of political science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, because Indiana is "an overwhelmingly Republican state ... and there is never support for taxes or public goods."

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/DemocratsUnlikely-Repeal-Tax-Cuts/2010/09/02/id/369030

[Kazan]

No, I mean Hell no they haven't seen the light, its just good politics

[Soul Crusher]

240's leftist heros are running for the hills. 

[BM OUT]

They will be repealed mark my words.No way will Obama give credit to Bush for any of his policies.

[Soul Crusher]

More Dems buck plan to let taxes increase for richBy STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, AP
posted: 42 MINUTES AGOcomments: 0

WASHINGTON -Congress seems increasingly reluctant to let taxes go up, even on wealthier Americans.

________________________ _________________



Worried about the fragile economy and their own upcoming elections, a growing number of Democrats are joining the rock-solid Republican opposition to President Barack Obama's plans to let some of the Bush administration's tax cuts expire.

Democratic leaders in Congress still back Obama, but the willingness to raise taxes is waning among the rank and file as the stagnant economy threatens the party's majority in the House and Senate.

"In my view this is no time to do anything that could be jarring to a fragile recovery," said Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, a first-term Democrat.

The most sweeping tax cuts in a generation are due to expire in January, and that's setting up a showdown when lawmakers return from their summer vacations this month. By waiting to act on the tax cuts until just before congressional elections in November, Democratic leaders have raised the stakes, politically and for taxpayers.

If Congress fails to act - a possibility given the gridlock that has gripped the Senate - workers at every income level would face significant tax increases next year.

Taxpayers making between $40,000 and $50,000 a year would get hit with an average income tax increase of $923 next year. Those making between $50,000 and $75,000 would face an average increase of $1,126, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

Obama wants to make the tax cuts permanent for middle- and low-income families while allowing them to expire for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000.

Republicans want to make all the tax cuts permanent, adding nearly $4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. Most Democrats in Congress support Obama's plan, but a growing number have come out in favor of extending all the reductions for a year or two, leaving the outcome very much in doubt.

"It's going to be hard to resist a one-year extension for everybody, given the state of the economy," said Clint Stretch, a tax expert at the consulting firm Deloitte Tax LLP. "That's where I think the ball is moving."

The tax cuts were enacted in 2001 and 2003 under President George W. Bush. They provided help for both rich and poor, reducing the lowest marginal rates as well as the top ones and several in between. They also provided a wide range of income tax breaks for education, families with children and married couples.

Taxes on capital gains and dividends were reduced, while the federal estate tax was gradually repealed, though only through this year.
Connolly said the nation cannot afford to make all the tax cuts permanent, which would add about $3.9 trillion to the national debt over the next decade according to updated estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

"I would say certainly a year, until we feel more confident about the economic growth of this economy," he said.

Another freshman Democrat, Rep. Bobby Bright of Alabama, said he would like to see all the tax cuts extended for two or three years, if lawmakers cannot agree on a more permanent plan.

"Party leaders are not my directors or my boss," Bright said. "My boss is my constituents, and I've heard from a vast majority of my constituents that they don't believe in tax increases on anybody at this point in time."

Bright is high on the re-election endangered list, one of roughly four dozen Democrats in districts won by Republican presidential nominee
John McCain in 2008.

In the Senate, where Democrats need unity and at least one Republican vote to overcome filibusters, at least three Democrats and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have said they want to extend all the tax cuts temporarily.

Several Democratic candidates for Senate have also come out in favor of extending them all, including Robin Carnahan in Missouri and Jack Conway in Kentucky.

"Jack Conway was in favor of the Bush tax cuts when they first passed (in 2001 and 2003), and he's in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts now," said spokeswoman Allison Haley.

Obama first staked out his position on taxes during the presidential campaign, and his administration has been adamant that the nation cannot afford to extend the reductions for top earners.

Obama's plan would let taxes increase by a little more than $38 billion next year, with nearly 80 percent of the increase falling on families making more than $1 million, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Taxpayers making between $200,000 and $500,000 would face an average tax increase of $532, according to the analysis. Those making from $500,000 to $1 million would average an increase of a little more than $9,800. Taxpayers making more than $1 million would average an increase of just over $95,000.

This week, White House economic adviser Jason Furman said it would be a bad idea to extend tax cuts for the wealthy, even for just a year, because it would open the door to making them permanent. Last week, Vice President Joe Biden said Republican claims that small businesses would be hurt by the proposed tax increase are a "bunch of malarkey."

On Thursday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said extending cuts for the wealthy would do little to improve the economy.
"We are focused first and foremost and only on extending tax cuts for the middle class," Gibbs said.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2010-09-02 15:33:18

[Dos Equis]

House Democrats Join Republicans in Opposing Obama Tax Plan
Published September 15, 2010
Associated Press
 
WASHINGTON -- More Democrats joined Republicans on Wednesday in calling for the preservation of tax breaks for Americans of every income level, bolting from President Obama's plan to preserve cuts for those who earn less than $200,000 and let taxes for the wealthy rise.

"We should not be raising taxes in the middle of a recession," Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., who's facing tough odds in his bid for a fourth term, wrote in a terse letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"It is essential that we keep things as they are in the short term," said Rep. Travis W. Childers, D-Miss., another conservative incumbent in a tight race, whose district, like Marshall's, voted for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential race.

For this pair, one press release announcing their opposition to Obama's plan was not enough.

They and other jittery moderate Democrats have signed a letter being circulated by Utah Rep. Jim Matheson urging Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House leaders to abandon the Obama plan and extend to everyone the Bush-era tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year.

House and Senate leaders aren't saying which plan they'll propose, or whether they'll even bother with the debate in the charged political atmosphere leading up to the Nov. 2 midterm elections.

All 435 House seats, 37 in the Senate and the Democratic majorities in both houses are on the line.

The divisions extended well into Democratic ranks on Capitol Hill. Moderates and conservatives in tight races were skittish about the prospect of being branded tax hikers at the height of election season if a bill to let taxes rise for the wealthy is brought up for debate. Other Democrats said they relish the idea of holding a vote to extend only the middle class tax cuts and daring Republicans to vote against it.

"I want to smoke some people out," said Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., a supporter of the Obama plan who nonetheless said he was open to compromise.

Common ground was less the issue than whether punting the matter until the end of the year might be politically helpful.

Democratic leaders would not commit to a full debate or a vote in the handful of weeks before Congress leaves town for the campaign trail. Asked directly Wednesday whether Congress should take up the tax cut issue before or after Election Day, Pelosi did not answer. Her lieutenant, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, sounded open to discussing compromises but did not say when those talks might happen.

Republicans, meanwhile, stayed together on their tax-cuts-for-all message and pressed for action before leaving town in October to go home to campaign. House Republican leader John Boehner, who over the weekend had suggested he would vote for Obama's plan if that were the only option offered him, stuck to the party's message Wednesday.

"If we're serious about helping our economy this month we need to stop the tax hikes, and we need to cut spending," Boehner said.

The expiring tax cuts are the most sweeping in a generation, affecting taxpayers at every income level. Obama wants to make the tax cuts permanent for individuals making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000.

Republicans support a full renewal of all tax cuts, regardless of income, despite a 10-year cost to the government of about $700 billion above Obama's plan.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/15/house-democrats-board-tax-break/

[240 is Back]

240's leftist heros are running for the hills. 

Dear Barry, I hope you know I ripped all your posters off the wall...