Politics
Obama: No ‘fiscal cliff’ deal without higher tax rates on rich
Democrats want taxes on rich raised
The counter to a White House plan last week relies more on politically sensitive spending cuts and would raise half the US$1.6 trillion in revenue proposed by Obama over the coming decade.
The 10-year, US$2.2 trillion proposal from Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner resembles a framework similar to what Boehner supported last year, but Obama is pressing for additional tax increases and appears to be balking at spending cuts discussed in those talks and since.
Administration officials from Obama on down say it’ll take money from raising tax rates on the rich — instead of GOP proposals to simply curb their deductions — to win Obama’s approval of any plan to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”
Boehner’s plan, which was signed by other House Republican leaders including recent vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, drew a sharp dismissal from Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, a leader of tea party conservatives in Congress.
“Speaker Boehner’s US$800 billion tax hike will destroy American jobs and allow politicians in Washington to spend even more, while not reducing our US$16 trillion debt by a single penny,” DeMint said.
It has been nearly a week since Obama and Boehner talked directly about the looming cliff, though their staffs have been in contact.
