Bloomberg Urges Super Committee To Go Big, Promotes Higher Taxes For All

By Andrea Salazar

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called on federal lawmakers Tuesday to seriously address the nation’s debt and deficit by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.

In a speech at the left-leaning Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., Bloomberg touted the plan put forth last year by President Obama’s debt commission. The proposal co-crafted by Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson, featured large spending cuts, scaled-back tax breaks, increases to personal tax rates and tweaks to federal entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

“The spending cuts in Simpson-Bowles, plus Clinton-era tax rates, plus closing some tax loopholes and ending wasteful subsidies would save $8 trillion and effectively bring our budget into balance by 2021,” Bloomberg said during a speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

Bloomberg warned that the current deficit committee’s goal of $1.2 trillion in cuts “would be almost as bad as getting no deal at all.” He called that figure “a drop in the bucket” compared to the nation’s $14.6 trillion debt.

“It will allow Congress to walk away from real deficit reduction until at least 2013.”

Calling for “a flatter and lower” tax, Bloomberg called on President Obama to allow the Bush tax cuts expire for all tax brackets.

“All income groups have to be part of the solution,” Bloomberg said. “It’s fair to ask those who earn more to bear more of the burden. That is the whole idea behind a graduated income tax,” Bloomberg said. “But all of us should help carry the load.”

However, the Mayor, who also happens to be the 12th richest person in the U.S., acknowledged that his recommendations are not a “cure-all,” adding that entitlement, tax and immigration reforms are also necessary.

Addressing the gridlock in Congress, Bloomberg pushed Democrats and Republicans to compromise. “We are not going to be able to cut our ways out of the problem and we’re not going to be able to just tax our ways out of the problem,” he said. “We must do both.”

“All sides have to be willing to give on something,” Bloomberg added. “We don’t have to slaughter the sacred cows but we do need to get a little milk from them.”

Boehner Says Obama Doesn't Get It

By AJ Swartwood

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) continued to criticize President Barack Obama over his economic proposals on Thursday.

“I don’t think the President and his economic team get it,” Boehner said. “Our economy is struggling to create jobs, and all the spending is one of the reasons why.”

Since the White House announced earlier this month a $50 billion infrastructure plan aimed at immediately creating jobs, Boehner has been on the attack, blasting the administration for proposing more investments. The Republican leader countered last week with a proposal of his own to extend tax cuts on all Americans for at least two years, and to return spending to pre-2008 levels.

“If the President wants to talk about new ideas for creating jobs, lets start with this one, lets try cutting spending instead of clinging to the worn out notion that we can spend our way back to prosperity,” Boehner said.

Boehner, who has backtracked on comments he made last Sunday suggesting he may be open to supporting tax cuts for only the middle class, reiterated his party’s pledge to support tax cuts for all.

“That’s our big focus,” he said.

Shelby Aims To Permanently Extend Tax Cuts

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said today that he’ll help sponsor legislation aimed at making permanent a series of tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003.

“The only thing worse than raising taxes is doing so under difficult economic conditions, as President Obama proposes,” said Shelby in a statement. “Allowing our existing tax rates to expire will cause the largest tax increase in America’s history, which is why I strongly support this legislation to prevent it.”

In addition to freezing current income tax rates, Shelby’s legislation would prohibit tax hikes on dividends earnings and capital gains. It would also increase the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) exemption amount so that fewer families are subject to it.

You can read more about the Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2010, or S. 3773, by clicking here.

Obama: We've Stopped The Bleeding, More Must Be Done

President Barack Obama spoke Monday in Fairfax, Va. where he told a group of local residents that his economic policies have “stopped the bleeding” from an economy nearing a state similar to that of the Great Depression. 

Obama reiterated to guests that the rate of recovery has not met his expectations and making up for the 8 million total jobs lost is an “enormous challenge.”.

“The fact of the matter is the pace of improvement has not  been where it needs to be and the hole that we had dug ourselves in was enormous,” Obama said. 

The president called on a Congress fresh off its August recess to pass a small business jobs bill that he said would offer businesses more assurance in prospective tax cuts, giving them more incentive to hire new employees. 

“Pass this bill, I will sign it into law the day after it’s passed or the day it is passed,” Obama said. “Right away, I think a lot of small businesses around the country will feel more comfortable about hiring and making investments.”

Obama also told the small group of northern Virginia residents that a Republican backed extension of Bush-era tax cuts is too expensive for the country.  The president said that his administration is still “in this wrestling match with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell” over extending tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans. 

“We just can’t afford it,” Obama said. 

Boehner May Budge On Tax Cuts

After a week of drawing lines in the sand over the expiring Bush tax cuts, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) hinted yesterday that he would be open to compromise.

Boehner remarked on CBS’s ‘Face The Nation’ that he would consider voting for a package of tax cuts for the middle class, even if it did not include relief for the wealthy.

“If the only option I have is to vote for some of those tax reductions. I’ll vote for them,” he said. The top House Republican added later, however, that allowing the cuts to expire for top earners would be “bad policy.”

The nuanced stance comes at the end of a week in which Boehner went indirectly toe to toe with President Barack Obama over what Congress should do when the series of tax breaks expires at the end of the year. Obama has made it clear that he wants Congress to extend the package for those making less than $250,000 per year, and last week rebuked Boehner’s proposal to freeze current tax rates for all Americans for at least two years.

Today, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs appeared on a series of morning talk shows to respond to Boehner’s comments.

“We welcome John Boehner’s change in position and support for the middle class tax cuts, but time will tell if his actions will be anything but continued support for the failed policies that got us into this mess.”

The President, who made stops in Cleveland and Milwaukee last week to promote new proposals aimed at creating jobs, is expected to make remarks about the economy in Northern Virginia this afternoon.