Ending the Bush tax cuts for wealthy would bring tears to his eyes (Reuters/Larry Downing)
NYT:
House Speaker John A. Boehner will issue a warning Tuesday to President Obama a day before the president is set to deliver a major speech on the nation’s deficit: Raising taxes is “unacceptable and a nonstarter.”
Mr. Boehner plans to issue the warning in a statement Tuesday afternoon, according to a copy of the statement The Caucus obtained. In it, Mr. Boehner says Republicans are “open to hearing” proposals from Mr. Obama about dealing with Medicare and other entitlements that reduce the nation’s long-term debt.
But he says a proposal by the president that includes tax increases will be treated as evidence that the president is not serious about dealing with the country’s long-term fiscal health.
“We don’t have deficits because Americans are taxed too little, we have deficits because Washington spends too much,” Mr. Boehner says in the statement. “And, at a time when the American people face skyrocketing prices at the pump, energy tax hikes are a particularly bad idea.”
Boehner's statement (which I guess technically was just an announcement he plans to issue another statement) is a complete reversal of his position from last week, when he said that despite opposing tax increases, he was willing to leave them "on the table" to facilitate a discussion about long-term deficits.
His statement comes even though it's not clear what President Obama will actually propose tomorrow. Despite the Washington Post's report that Obama would endorse the Simpson-Bowles plan, both Greg Sargent and Ezra Klein are hearing otherwise. The White House is staying mum, at least publicly, saying only that Obama's plan will "be his own."
Nonetheless, it seems logical that Obama will call for ending the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy—despite signing their extension into law, he's continued to say that he opposes them. Earlier today, Chris Van Hollen previewed the House Democratic budget plan, and it included the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. He also tried to argue the House plan was compatible with Simpson-Bowles, which was an absurd statement to make, if only because the House Democratic plan does not raise the retirement age of Social Security and it does not contemplate tax reform that would represent a major tax cut for top earners.
But whether or not President Obama will once again make the case that ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is an essential part of deficit reduction, it's telling that even before Obama has delivered the speech, the very first thing John Boehner does is to dig in over tax cuts for the wealthy—not that it was ever really a question whether the GOP would defend tax cuts for top earners. The only question is whether Democrats have the strength to fight back—and win.
The good news, if they're up to the challenge: math is on their side.