Posted on 06/08/2012 10:24:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Senate Democratic leaders are politically paralyzed on how to proceed on the Bush-era tax rates.
With five months to go before the election, President Obama and key congressional Democrats remain at odds on whether the threshold for extending the George W. Bush-era rates for families should be $250,000 per year or $1 million annually. Obama backs the former while most Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), support the higher threshold.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has no immediate plans to advance a bill allowing Bush-era tax rates for the wealthy to expire, and instead will let House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) move first on the Bush rates. Boehner plans to move a bill before the August recess.
Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson disputed the characterization that the Democratic leadership is paralyzed. He said the pressure is on Republicans to offer a compromise if they are to avert tax rates reverting to pre-2001 levels for all income brackets. Democratic leaders maintain they are content to play defense, but are worried that some vulnerable Democrats might defect and support a temporary extension of all the Bush-era rates, which would undercut their negotiating position.
Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.), two Democrats facing tough races this year, on Thursday declined to rule out support for an across-the-board extension of the rates.
“If you want to do something in the spirit of compromise, you don’t start out by saying, ‘I refuse to do this’ or ‘I refuse to do that,’ ” said McCaskill. “It’s not my preference to extend tax cuts to multimillionaires — that’s not my preference — but I want to keep every option open in the spirit of compromise.”
Democrats from Republican-leaning states are also undecided.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
These people are so disingenuous...
I can’t believe they are stupid enough to think that they can actually tax “multimillionaires” with an “income” tax.
Any discussion of taxes is a diversion to keep us from focusing on spending. And especially the tsunami of spending that current law implies.
I think the headline should read democrats paralyzed by tax INCREASES. Because that’s what they’re debating, not whose taxes shall be cut, but whose shall be increased.
WTF do they keep calling it that? It drives me nuts. The MSM renamed the "Bush Tax Cuts" as the "Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy."
Everyone got the same cut as a % of what they paid. The dems re-wrote the narrative.
10% of $1,000 = $100
10% of 100,000 = $1,000
So the wealthy "got a bigger tax cut."
The click-paste-media just plods along in Ho-Hum Utopia Province looking for a congenial pat on the head and a babytalk "good boy!" from the liberal elites and President.
I wonder if any of these guys have given any thought to the possible end-of-year sell-off in the stock market if the capital gains tax is scheduled to rise?
Agreed. But I think it goes deeper than taxing millionaires. I think the Dems are becoming reconcilled that Obama is going to lose the election, so they are getting things in place to assure post-election deadlock and perhaps spooking the economy so much as to give Obama an excuse to hold onto power. Tax increases! Sequestration! A market sell-off!
Obama will "have to" step in to save the country!
“10% of 100,000 = $1,000”
Really?
10% of $100,000 = $10,000
Please grade my work.
(Wow! I’m going to go sit in a corner and think about what I’ve done.)
I fear this guy between Nov 2012 and Jan 2013.
Look what the congress did to us in the lame duck session of 2010.
I’m just not a proponent of the new math.
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