$1.6 trillion in new revenues, new stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and a permanent end to the debt ceiling. In return
Obama offered $400 billion in non guaranteed cuts to be worked out
next year when pigs fly.
House Republicans said on Thursday that Treasury
Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented the House speaker, John A.
Boehner, a detailed proposal to avert the year-end fiscal crisis with
$1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, an immediate new round of
stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and a permanent end to
Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits.
The proposal, loaded with Democratic priorities and short on detailed
spending cuts, was likely to meet strong Republican resistance. In
exchange for locking in the $1.6 trillion in added revenues, President
Obama embraced $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other
entitlements, to be worked out next year, with no guarantees.
He did propose some upfront cuts in programs like farm price
supports, but did not specify an amount or any details. And senior
Republican aides familiar with the offer said those initial spending cuts might well be outnumbered by upfront spending increases,
including at least $50 billion in infrastructure spending, mortgage
relief, an extension of unemployment insurance and a deferral of
automatic cuts to physician reimbursements under Medicare…
[T]he details show how far the president is ready to push House
Republicans. The upfront tax increases in the proposal go beyond what
Senate Democrats were able to pass earlier this year. Tax rates would go
up for higher-income earners, as in the Senate bill, but Mr. Obama
wants their dividends to be taxed as ordinary income, something the Senate did not approve. He also wants the estate tax to be levied at 45 percent on inheritances over $3.5 million, a step several Democratic senators balked at. The Senate bill made no changes to the estate tax, which currently taxes inheritances over $5 million at 35 percent.
Sen. Mitch McConnell reportedly
burst out laughing...
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