Politics
Republicans: Deal can be done with Obama to avoid U.S. ‘fiscal cliff’
Boehner last week repeated his party’s commitment to not raise anyone’s tax rates, but said that he would be open to a compromise that includes changes in the tax code that bring in more revenue, something fiscal conservatives in his party have argued strongly against in the past as tantamount to a tax hike.
Tax cuts first put in place under Republican former President George W. Bush are due to expire at the end of the year for all Americans unless Congress acts. That would lift the top rate of income tax from the current 35 percent for households earning more than US$250,000 a year to 39.6 percent.
Obama won re-election on Tuesday after a campaign in which he called for wealthier Americans to pay a bit more in taxes. But a range of deductions, including on mortgage interest payments and charitable giving, can significantly lower the effective tax rate that most affluent U.S. households pay.
Mathematically Impossible
Another influential Democrat, Senator Charles Schumer, voiced skepticism that it would be possible to raise enough revenue to lower the deficit sufficiently without lifting the tax rate on the rich, but said he is open to hearing other ideas.
“The only way mathematically that I’ve seen to do it, is go to that 39.6 percent rate. If someone can show another plan that doesn’t do that … we could look at it. But no one has shown one because I think it is mathematically impossible,” Schumer said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
