No raising the ceiling!!!!!!!
What is it Boehner doesn’t understand?
It’s as though I planned to put in a swimming pool, but now I can’t because I don’t have the money, that’s NOT a default. I simply call the contractor and say “I am not doing the project. Maybe next year.” And he can go on his merry way, building pools for the Saudis.
Boehner insisted the $800 billion would come from a broadened tax base and not from any tax increase. "It was not raising taxes," he said, no doubt mindful of House conservatives' stiff opposition to anything that resembles a tax hike."Broadened tax base" means bringing more people to the place where they have money to be taxed, and eliminating special deductions and credits.
I wonder how many tea partiers would consider the elimination of a refundable tax credit to be a tax increase (refundable credits are "tax credits" given to people who didn't pay taxes, so they are in effect government handouts). So, we could eiminate a tax credit that would save $50 billion in government handouts, but $10 billion would have been handouts to people who actually paid $10 billion in taxes. Is that a tax increase? Is it a spending cut? Is it just too hard to fit into a sound bite?