Boehner Says Republicans Didn’t Want Tax Increase
House Speaker John Boehner said some members of the Republican caucus refused to back his tax measure because they didn’t want to be accused of raising taxes.
Boehner spoke to reporters in Washington a day after he scrapped a plan to allow higher tax rates on annual income above $1 million, throwing already-stalled budget talks into turmoil.
It was “not the outcome I wanted, but it was the will of the House,” Boehner said. “They were dealing with the perception that someone might accuse them of raising taxes.”
Until Dec. 17, President Barack Obama and Boehner had been edging closer to a deal that would have included $1 trillion each in tax increases and spending cuts.
Now that Boehner has pulled his plan, House members and senators won’t vote on the end-of-year budget issues until after Christmas. That will give them less than a week to reach agreement to avert more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January.
The speaker said he pushed his alternative tax plan in the House to “basically jump start and try to kick into gear some action by the Senate to avert these tax increases going into effect Jan. 1.”
Boehner said he and Obama had traded “bottom line” offers on spending cuts and taxes. He urged the Senate to take up legislation the House passed Aug. 1 that would extend the current rates on all taxpayers.
‘Take a Look’
“If the Senate wants to act on that bill we’ll certainly take a look at it,” Boehner said.
Senate Democrats objected to Boehner’s assertion that the House’s failure to pass his proposal shifts the responsibility to the Senate. Instead, they said Boehner must abandon his position that a budget proposal needs to pass the House with a Republican majority.
Boehner “must allow a bill to pass with a combination of Democratic and Republican votes,” Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said in an e-mailed statement. Jentleson said Boehner should return to the talks with Obama, describing an Obama-Boehner deal as “the only way to avoid the cliff altogether.”
Reid told reporters yesterday that, unless Obama and Boehner reach an agreement, “there’s nothing to discuss” on Senate action unless House Republicans take up a Senate-passed measure to let taxes rise on household income over $250,000.
Market Reaction
Stocks sank. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated 1.2 percent to 1,427.09 at 11 a.m. in New York, marking its biggest drop since Nov. 14. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 151.51 points, or 1.1 percent, to 13,160.21 today. Treasuries climbed, as the U.S. 10-year yield dropped five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 1.75 percent at 11:22 a.m. New York time, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices.
In his most recent tax proposal, Obama said he would be willing to extend tax cuts for households earning as much as $400,000 a year. Until Boehner made his $1 million threshold offer last week, Republicans had opposed tax rate increases for any income level.
Boehner’s plan failed in part because of how quickly the speaker tried to rally lawmakers behind it, Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, said today in an interview.
“Bold is tough, and especially when bold is quick,” he said.
Tax Changes
If Congress doesn’t act, the policy changes starting in January include higher income tax rates at all income levels, the end of a 2 percentage point cut in the payroll tax, higher tax rates on capital gains, estates and dividends, and automatic spending cuts, about half in defense programs.
“It looks like to me that obviously this is going to drag on into next year, which is going to hurt our economy,” Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Peter Cook for the program “Capitol Gains” airing Dec. 23. “So this will just drag on and on. And it really is about just political courage.”
Still, Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, said this month that instead of “fiscal cliff,” he prefers the term “fiscal slope” to describe how the effects would accumulate gradually over a matter of months during 2013. The components also can be reversed if a deal is reached early in 2013, he said.
The speaker said a tax overhaul would help get the economy moving, though he added, “How we get there, God only knows.”
Treasury Employees
In a message to Treasury Department employees, Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin said day-to-day operations wouldn’t change dramatically in January if the automatic cuts take effect. Furloughs may be possible later if the issue is unresolved for an extended period of time, he wrote.
The failure of Boehner’s proposal cast doubt on his ability to navigate the competing political and legislative forces bearing down on him. To get a tax-and-spending deal, Boehner must gain enough support from Republicans to keep control of his party while relying on Democrats for the votes needed to send any measure to Obama.
“It weakens the entire Republican Party, the Republican majority,” said Representative Steven LaTourette, a nine-term Ohio Republican who is retiring after this session. “If you’re not a governing majority, you’re not going to be a majority very long.”
ABC/Post Poll
That view was underscored by the results of an ABC/Washington Post poll released this morning. In it, 53 percent of Americans said the Republican Party needs less conservative policies that are more focused on middle-income and lower-income Americans, while 38 percent said the party needs better leaders to sell its policies. The telephone poll of 1,002 adults, conducted Dec. 13-16, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Obama wants Boehner, 63, to allow a House vote on the Senate-passed bill that would extend tax cuts on income up to $250,000. That bill doesn’t address several parts of the so- called fiscal cliff, including the payroll tax, unemployment insurance, estate tax, spending cuts, expanded unemployment insurance and miscellaneous tax breaks.
A House leadership announcement said the chamber will hold no more votes until after the Christmas holiday and will return “when needed.” Reid said yesterday the Senate won’t address the end-of-year budget issues until Dec. 27.
Main Priority
“The president’s main priority is to ensure that taxes don’t go up on 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses in just a few short days,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in an e-mailed statement. “We are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly.”
The failure of what Boehner called Plan B demonstrated the clout of anti-tax Republicans and made it less clear what budget legislation Congress could pass. The White House had said it would veto the tax bill and Reid said it would be dead on arrival in the Senate.
“I’ve seen lots of tough votes before,” said Representative Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican. “And it’s a birthing process if you will, with lots of labor pains.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Roxana Tiron in Washington at rtiron@bloomberg.net; James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor speak at a news conference in Washington about the failure to bring to a House vote last night Boehner's "Plan B" proposal and measures needed to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. (Source: Bloomberg)
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Matt McDonald, a partner at Hamilton Place Strategies LLC, talks about the outlook for an agreement by lawmakers to avoid the so-called U.S. fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. McDonald speaks with Tom Keene, Josh Barro and Michael McKee on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." John Ryding, chief economist and co-founder of RDQ Economics, also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)
Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, talks about federal budget negotiations. Bloomberg Government's Robert Litan and Tony Costello discuss the impact of taxes on small and new businesses, and the corporate tax code. Bloomberg's Megan Hughes reports on the impact of drought on the Mississippi River and shipping. They speak with Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television's "Capitol Gains." (Source: Bloomberg)
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