Posted on 09/13/2010 12:17:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Senate Republicans have enough votes to block President Barack Obama's plan to extend tax cuts for the middle class while allowing those for the rich to expire, a spokesman for the Senate Republican leader said on Monday.
Republicans on Monday scrambled to regroup on the tax issue ahead of November 2 congressional elections after House of Representatives Republican Leader John Boehner appeared to open the door for a possible compromise.
Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, said Senate Republicans are united on the issue. "There are no Republicans who support a tax hike," he said.
Obama raised the stakes last week when he accused Republicans of "holding hostage" middle class tax cuts to save lower tax rates for the top two income groups.
Tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush for all individuals will expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act.
The issue has the Obama administration and Republicans in a political showdown, with Democratic lawmakers caught in the middle as they struggle to keep control of both chambers in November's midterm congressional elections.
Some Democrats have distanced themselves from the administration's call to let tax cuts expire for the wealthy, arguing the economic recovery is too weak to impose tax increases.
Republicans are also sending mixed signals.
Boehner said on Sunday that if given no other choice, he would support extending tax cuts for the middle class -- even if cuts for the wealthy are allowed to expire, effectively raising their taxes.
In response, Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, on Monday called for a vote on whether to extend all Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the rich.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Love the headline. No bias :)
lol.... they can’t even write a straight news story anymore. They have even forgotten how to pretend to be impartial...
Dammit. Take what you can get right now. This will be spun as the Republicans only care about the rich. I think the RINOs want to screw the Tea Party movement. They should back off this and take the breaks for the middle class. Then let the public see that taxing the rich will increase unemployment. If not, the Demorats will play this as the Republicans blocking a tax break, when in fact it is the Demorats who want to raise taxes. How frikkin stupid can the GOP be?
Sounds like it is time to move Boehner out of there.
WTF was he thinking about?
LOL! I hate AlReuters!
That's as far as I could get....
How about a flat tax? It’s about time the the freeloading deadbeats that make up the base of the democrat party pay THEIR fair share. 10% across the board. No more, no less. No exemptions, no credits, no deductions. Nothing.
The whole premise is wrong.
Democrats never cut taxes. They issue tax credits to specific groups, then when they feel it’s safe, they get rid of them. Repubs getting into a discussion with in power dims about cutting taxes is pointless.
Boehner’s thinking about all those tantalizing Blue Dog seats moving his way.
Correct the damn fools don't know how to keep their heads down and keep plowing.
RE: How about a flat tax? It’s about time the the freeloading deadbeats that make up the base of the democrat party pay THEIR fair share. 10% across the board. No more, no less. No exemptions, no credits, no deductions. Nothing.
Add also one attractive offer -— No IRS audits if you choose the flat tax.
And here’s another sweetener -— offer this as a CHOICE ( as in -— We Republicans are pro-choice for taxes, you Dems are pro-choice when it comes to killing babies ).
The Choice is this -— From 2012 on, we will have two ways of filing taxes. You get to choose which one you prefer.
CHOICE ONE : THE FLAT TAX ( where you file your taxes in one page, as you describe above ).
CHOICE TWO : THE TRADITIONAL WAY ( with all of its intricate accounting detail ).
I am willing to bet that in 5 years, the Traditional Way will (to quote Newt Gingrich ) slowly whither in the vine.
This isn’t a new proposal BTW... John McCain proposed it when he was campaigning for POTUS. It just was not given much attention.
Gibbs is already spinning the continuation of the middle class taxes as (Obamas tax releif for the middle class-)technically that would be correct since the Republicans never made the Tax rates permanent-so technically if the tax cuts are reauthorized they would be Obamas and of course the huge tax increase to the over 250K crowd is his too
Seems like Obama has the weaker hand as far as getting a bill passed before election. Still, the liberal base wants those taxes ‘on the rich’ going up and that money spent. It's a huge issue with them,: “tax the rich”. They would rather have THEIR OWN taxes go up than have 'the rich' pay less in taxes'.
Let me guess that Obama will keep complaining about Republicans and not push anything through before the election similar to immigration reform.
Boner is going limp on this one.
I love how AP delivers their Leftist Slant at every news story.
The Republicans need to appeal to the common sense of the American people—not play cutesy with the media. When asked, they should say, “Why punish the rich? If jobs are the question, when was the last time you asked a poor person for a job?”
It’s not tax cuts for the rich...
It’s tax cuts for EMPLOYERS!
RE: It’s tax cuts for EMPLOYERS!
Good call.
HE WHO WINS THE BATTLE OF TERMINOLOGIES WIN THE DAY.
For too long, conservatives allow the libs to get away with using their terminologies.
As Rush used to say -— WORDS MEAN THINGS.
Everytime a Dem uses the term “Rich”, the retort should always be to replace it with with the term — “Employers”.
This will resonate better for voters in an age where jobs are scarce and millions are unemployed.
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