WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans will oppose any effort to renew soon-to-expire Bush administration tax cuts if upper income taxpayers are excluded from the reductions. A spokesman for Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that every Senate Republican has pledged to oppose President Barack Obama's tax-cutting plan. Obama would renew the tax cuts for most people, but let the top income tax rate rise back to almost 40 percent on family or small business income over $250,000.

McConnell has said a bill extending the tax cuts for only low- and middle-income earners cannot pass the Senate. Forty-one senators can block a bill with a filibuster, but McConnell spokesman Don Stewart declined to say whether all 41 Republicans would support a filibuster.

At issue is a year-end deadline to renew a variety of tax cuts enacted in 2001 — when the federal government was running a surplus.

On Sunday, House GOP Leader John Boehner said he would support renewing tax cuts for the middle class but not the wealthy if that was his only choice.

Democrats are worried that November elections could hand the GOP control of the House and perhaps the Senate. The White House and its Democratic allies hope to use the tax-cut fight to cast themselves as defenders of the middle class and Republicans as a party eager to revive the days of the still unpopular former President George W. Bush.

"We're going to take the next 50-some days to convince the public that's exactly what the Republicans would do — back to the Bush policies," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Gibbs said on NBC's "Today" show.

Gibbs said the middle class should not be used as a political football by Republicans maneuvering to give tax cuts to wealthy taxpayers, who he said don't need the reductions. Republicans say paring taxes for the wealthy would encourage them and the businesses they operate to create jobs.

Congressional analysts say renewing the tax cuts for everyone would cost the government $4 trillion over the next decade. With polls showing a broad public anger over spiraling federal deficits, Obama wants to exclude individuals earning over $200,000 and couples making over $250,000 — who account for $700 billion of that total.

"That's a debate we're happy to have," McConnell told the Washington Post. "That's the kind of debate that unifies my caucus."

Democrats aren't unified behind Obama and their House and Senate leaders. Several Senate Democrats say they would like all of the Bush tax cuts to be extended for another year or two as the economy slowly recovers from the recession.

"I don't think it makes sense to raise any federal taxes during the uncertain economy we are struggling through," Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who aligns with Democrats, said Monday. "The more money we leave in private hands, the quicker our economic recovery will be. And that means I will do everything I can to make sure Congress extends the so-called Bush tax cuts for another year."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday also called on Congress to move quickly to extend the tax cuts.

Geithner and the administration have tried to make the case that conditions would have been worse without Obama's economic policies, including the $814 billion stimulus package. Geithner said that a return to Republican policies would put the economic recovery in jeopardy.

"We can't afford to go back to the policies of the past decade when we passed large tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans without paying for them and saw little impact on job creation and years of stagnation in middle class wages," he said.

Republicans say the level of spending undertaken by the Obama administration has done little to boost the economy. Instead, it has increased the deficit to unsustainable levels, they say.

Agreed.  I don't work for a middle class person.  The rich tend to employ others.  Enough with the constant picking on "the rich".

ugh i'm so tired of political shit

where's the reset button on the government?

 

The libtarded comments on yahoo made my head explode.

There's some scuttlebutt in today's WaPo that the Dems want to raise the limit to one million, likely due to urban school superintendents figuring out the $250K cutoff would effect them.

The republicans need to tell their side of the story.  obunghole and the socialist scum sure seem to get their side told.

Let's see if I get this-

Rich = 4,000,000,000,000 - 3,300,000,000,000 = 700,000,000,000

Middle Class = 4,000,000,000,000 - 700,000,000,000 = 3,300,000,000,000

Looks like the rich are the appetizer and the MC is the main course.

How about-

SPEND LESS, DICKHEADS!

The Dems consider anyone who makes over 250K 'rich'



For a dual-income household in some parts of the country (oddly enough, DEMOCRAT parts) that's not exactly 'rich'...



For a small business, it's not rich at all...



 

That's what I never understand about Obamas policy of raising taxes on those making more then 250000. I work in what would probably be considered a medium size machine shop. We probably have about 35 employees now and we all make a very respectable wage. The owner has added onto the existing building and added 4 machines in the last year and a half. He has hired machinist to run these new machines and added a QA guy. I don't know what he makes a year but I'm sure it's more than 250000. He lives in a nice house but in no means a mansion and has some nice vehicles but no different then anyone on here drives. Should he get raked over the coals because of the money he makes while giving so many of us a job? This is why Obamas policies have to fail or he will kill the already crippled economy. Why can't his financial gurus get this?

No need to extend any tax cuts. Set the rate(permanently) at 10% or less and everybody pays. No exceptions, no deductions, no exemptions, credits, deferrals, or other bullshit. You either pay or get the fuck out.

Fucking GOP just dont get it..

They will crush small business owners at, or just above, that "magical" $250k number.  The onslaught of additional requirements for insurance and a substantial increase in tax liability for income will, by itself, create a losing situation for the very people you WANT to keep growing.  Most people do not sustain losses very well, and most will simply pack it in.  Count on it.



You HAVE to spend less.  You HAVE to stop the free welfare checks - make them do something, anything for that wage.  You HAVE to get us out from under ObamaCare, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  You HAVE to stop sending billions in cash overseas for "research" and "vaccines" that goes to line pockets of warlords and dictators - send the actual vaccines, drugs, and food.  Stop paying US farmers NOT to produce.  Stop buying out private companies.  Stop subsidizing sub-prime lending.

Spending less is something they cannot seem to grasp.......................Lets hope the Repubs can figure it out soon!!

Wait, what>?

 

They should have just made 2010 a tax free year for individuals.  No govt income, no refunds.
That would have surely stimulated the economy instead of playing all the games of paying off the campaign backers of the winning party with "stimulus" money.  My wife and I would have no problem using our high five figure tax liability amount ($xx,xxx) to help the economy, how about you guys?
 

+1