Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators gathered at Mount Vernon outside Washington for a three-day retreat aimed at producing an alternative debt-reduction strategy to replace the “fiscal cliff,” including a tax overhaul that reduces rates but raises more money.
At stake is not only the size of the tax burden on ordinary Americans but also the size of the economic mess that the next administration will inherit. Unless Congress can reach an agreement, tax bills will automatically increase for nearly 90 percent of Americans next year, slowing government borrowing but potentially inviting a new recession.
Republican nominee Mitt Romney wants to push the cliff off for another year to give lawmakers time to make far-reaching changes to social programs and the tax code, including reducing the rate paid by top earners from 35 percent to 28 percent. President Obama has proposed his own debt-reduction framework, which calls for spending cuts and significantly higher taxes on the nation’s wealthiest households.
The standoff cannot be resolved until voters determine who will occupy the White House. But after dominating Washington for much of the past two years, the policy debate over taxes is already being renewed.
In a speech at the National Press Club, Schumer said lowering the rate paid by top earners makes no sense in an age of rising income inequality and soaring debt. The speech took a direct jab at Romney, but its larger goal was to reset the parameters of the debate heading into the year-end battle.
“These promises of lower rates amount to little more than happy talk when the math behind them doesn’t add up,” he said. “It is an alluring prospect to cut taxes on the wealthiest people and somehow still reduce the deficit. But you can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
Many Democrats, including Obama, have embraced lower rates as a central tenet of tax reform. Last summer, in failed negotiations with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Obama agreed that the top rate should be reduced from 35 percent.
On Tuesday, Schumer sought to upend the apparent consensus. He urged Democrats to “scrap” the old approach and demand higher rates — not only for the wealthy but also for investment income. Revenue raised by closing loopholes and deductions should be dedicated entirely to lowering deficits, he said, not to lowering rates — the GOP’s primary policy objective.
Senior Republicans quickly accused Schumer of sowing land mines on the path to compromise and inviting continued stalemate at the risk of economic calamity.
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