Said default position is to raise taxes
As the clock ticks on raising the nation’s debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default, Vice President Biden met with Republican negotiators on Thursday in another closed-door meeting that only showed how far apart both sides remained.
In the 2 1/2-hour meeting, the sixth one between the administration and a handful of top lawmakers, Biden and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made a pitch for more revenue, but Republicans resolutely oppose anything that could be called a tax hike.
With the talks moving slowly, negotiators agreed to pick up the pace, scheduling three meetings for next week. Taxes remain the biggest sticking point.
“Any balanced packaged has to end big loopholes, like subsidies for the oil and gas industry,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who’s one of two House Democrats participating in the talks. But asked whether Republicans are showing any willingness to consider tax increases, Van Hollen said, “I can’t say that would be true, no.”
Last month, Biden told reporters: “I’ve made it clear … revenues have to be in the deal.”
The White House push for revenues is noteworthy because Democrats will have to provide votes to get the final measure passed, since many Tea Party-backed House Republicans are likely to oppose any measure to increase the debt limit. The vote is already so unpalatable for Republicans that it’s difficult to imagine GOP negotiators going along with new taxes and risk the wrath of the Tea Party and anti-tax activists, like Grover Norquist — even Democrats offer up larger spending cuts.
So, raising revenues, er, expenditures in the tax code, sorry, increased taxation is the only thing on Democrats’ tiny minds. They just can’t envision reducing the federal government’s spending. And, of course, they want to go after the tax breaks that oil companies receive, which would simply be passed on to consumers, who Dems can then demonize, and call for more “green” energy subsidies. No matter that increasing gas prices would destroy the fragile economy, which Democrats own. That’s not their concern.
If they want to remove the tax breaks for oil companies (which would mostly affect American companies, not ones like British Petroleum and Citgo), let’s remove the direct subisidies and tax breaks from the other energy sectors. Let’s remove all loopholes, which benefit rich people like Van Hollen, Obama, Geithner (though, we will give him a small grant every year so that someone can work Turbo Tax for him) and Democrat donors. Heck, let’s go all the way, and enact the Fair Tax!
Democrats truly live in some sort of economic fantasy world.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Bush’s fault. That’s their story, and they’re stickin to it.
Even if they’ve had control of both houses of congress for years, and still maintain control of two branches of office. That pesky GW is still bringing down the economy.
[…] Cove:Democrats Fall Back To Their Default Position During Debt Fight: So, raising revenues, er, expenditures in the tax code, sorry, increased taxation is the only […]
If the Social Democrats are going to insist that tax increases must be part of any debt limit deal, one must wonder why any Republicans bother to attend these meetings at all.
The Stupublicans need to stick to their promises. While it was insanely stupid to attempt to tackle Medicare or SS without both houses of congress and the White House, the die is cast now so they better figure out how to defend it. If they don’t stick to their principals they’ll lose the conservatives forever. If standing for what’s right results in loss of congress and the White House so be it. The Bolsheviks can go back to destroying the country and it’s economy to their heart’s content. After the collapse we’ll just have to try again. On the up side Bolsheviks idea of preparing for disaster is raising taxes and far fewer of them are likely to survive what’s coming.
“On the up side Bolsheviks idea of preparing for disaster is raising taxes and far fewer of them are likely to survive what’s coming.”
Hmmm, I think I like the possibilities of this…as long as they are going to sink us, we may as well enjoy the ride. And we’ll be ready to get back up!
What pisses me off is that the ‘tax breaks’ for oil companies are available to everyone. It’s called depreciation. They can depreciate the value of wells as they run dry, just like anyone can do with their capital goods (provided they itemize).
So what the dems are saying is that they want to put a special tax on oil companies that no one else has to pay.
Stupid is as stupid is.
Let’s remove a TAX CODE that is available to any business right now that has been available for DECADES to any business. Oh, only for the evil oil companies who provide thousands of jobs and the UTTER life-blood of every nation on this earth. Then, let’s implement a special directed targeted revenge tax upon them so that when they drill a well, the deeper they go and the more oil they pull out, the higher that FINE, I mean tax, goes up.
Yes, that is completely fair and non-punitive to a small set of companies.
Teach, might as well go straight to FLAT TAX with absolutely no tax breaks whatsoever.