Boehner: ‘Tax hikes are off the table’
Speaker Boehner certainly doesn’t sound like he’s looking to broker a compromise:
“I understand his frustration, I understand why he did what he did, but I think those talks could continue if they’re willing to take the tax hikes off the table,” he said. ...
“Tax hikes are off the table,” he said. “First of all, raising taxes is going to destroy jobs. ... Second, a tax hike cannot pass the US House of Representatives — it’s not just a bad idea, it doesn’t have the votes and it can’t happen. And third, the American people don’t want us to raise taxes. They know we have a spending problem.”
Perhaps this leaves some space for tax increases that Boehner can sell as something other than tax increases: closing loopholes, ending tax breaks, shaving expenditures, or chaining CPI (a policy I’ll be talking more about soon). But at this point, if the markets aren’t getting worried, they’re not paying attention.
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