May 02, 2012

HYPOCRISY ALERT: House Republicans Demand Paying For Middle Class Tax Cuts, Not Millionaires

According to a new story in yesterday’s The Hill newspaper, House Republicans have no intention of paying for extensions of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, preferring to go further in debt instead. However, it was earlier this year that House Republicans demanded cuts to Medicare, among other things, in order to pay for extending the payroll tax cut for the middle class.

In the latest example of their stunning hypocrisy and the latest revelation of their real priorities, House Republicans need offsets to extend tax cuts for 160 million middle income families, but when it comes to the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, they will gladly plunge America further into debt.

“It’s clear House Republicans have one set of rules for millionaires and another set of rules for everybody else,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “When it comes to giving more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires House Republicans don’t want to pay for it, but when it comes to middle income families, Republicans demand that middle income Americans sacrifice to pay for it. The hypocrisy is stunning and this is just the latest reminder of House Republicans’ wrong priorities that help millionaires at the expense of the middle class.”

BACKGROUND

House Republicans: No Offsets for Extending Bush-Era Tax Rates. “House Republicans say they have no plans to pay for the extension of the Bush-era tax rates, a move that could erase the deficit reduction they have achieved since winning their majority in the chamber in 2010. While President Obama and congressional Democrats want to extend only the Bush rates for middle-income earners, Republicans have long argued that the entire slate of tax rates should be kept in place until Congress can agree to a complete overhaul of the tax code. But moving to extend the Bush tax rates without offsetting spending cuts or revenue increases could leave the GOP vulnerable to attacks on the deficit, particularly for a party that has spent years accusing Democrats of bankrupting federal coffers and used their House majority to insist on controlling the exploding debt.” [The Hill, 5/1/12]

Republicans Insist that the Payroll Tax Cut Extension Be Fully Offset With Spending Cuts. House Republican leaders said they would only consider extending the payroll tax cut if its cost is offset by equal spending cuts. As part of those offsets, they pushed to cuts to hospital payments under Medicare. House Republicans, however, did not require offsets as a condition to extending the Bush-era tax cuts on high incomes. [New York Times, 9/6/11; TPM, 1/19/12]

Speaker John Boehner: Payroll Tax Extension Needs to Be Offset by Spending Cuts. “We passed a year-long extension in the payroll tax credit in December,” said Republican House Speaker John Boehner. “We had reasonable offsets in spending that, most of them, came from the president’s own budget. And so we’ve done our work. We’re in conference with the Senate trying to come to agreement. But it’s pretty clear that our Senate colleagues want no part of cutting spending. Now, if we’re going to extend the payroll tax credit, and we’re going to extend unemployment benefits with reforms, and take care of the so-called doc fix, we’re going to have to offset this spending.” [PBS NewsHour, 2/7/12]

Republican Leader Eric Cantor: Republicans Would Like to See the Payroll Tax Cut Extension Offset by Spending Cuts. “We supported a year-long extension of the payroll tax holiday to make sure that people will not have their taxes raised when they’re out there trying to make it through the month. What we would like to have seen is we would like to have seen it done in a way that we could actually reduce spending while at the same time affording this tax relief,” said Republican Leader Eric Cantor. [Fox News Sunday, 2/19/12]

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