McCarthy: Americans Want All Tax Cuts Renewed

By Kyle LaFleur

Incoming House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and other House Republicans rallied for a total extension of the Bush era tax cuts on Tuesday minutes before President Obama met with Democrat and GOP leaders at the White House.

“This election was about jobs and spending,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy went on to add that in the 754 months since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began recording unemployment statistics that only 50 of these months held umployment above eight percent, with 21 of these months falling under the current administration.  

“The difficulty we have is, this is the wrong time to raise taxes on small business,” said McCarthy. “This is the time to end uncertainty and this is the time to think anew and get this country working again.”  

With little over a month until the January 1st deadline for the cuts, the issue still remains up in the air. 

Hoyer Takes Issue With “Slurpee Summit” Snub

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) took issue with the Republican leadership’s request to postpone a White House meeting with Congressional leaders.

“I can never remember an instance where President Bush asked me or the Democratic leadership to come down and meet with them that we did not accommodate our schedule to that request,” Hoyer told reporters Thursday morning. “I think that is not only respectful of the President of the United States but it also furthers the ability to solve the problems confronting the country.”

The meeting, informally called “the Slurpee Summit” in a nod to President Obama’s midterm campaign rhetoric, was initially supposed to take place Thursday. It has now been rescheduled for November 30th after Republicans cited scheduling conflicts.

Hoyer suggested that the GOP’s apparent flippancy towards the White House goes further than the summit, noting that Democrats supported the Bush administration’s controversial TARP plan while Republicans balked at the Recovery Act.