Flashback to December 2012 when the fiscal deal discussions were underway and Republicans proposed additional tax revenue from eliminating tax deductions and loopholes and Barack Obama rejected it, said he would not agree to a deal that did not raise the tax rates for upper income Americans.
Via CNN, December 4, 2012:
Yet Republicans, led by Boehner, have objected to any increase in tax rates, even for the wealthiest Americans. They have said an agreement must include major reforms of entitlement programs such as the Medicare and Medicaid government-run health-care programs for senior citizens, the disabled and the poor.Their plan offered Monday proposed $800 billion in deficit savings through tax reform, including an unspecified amount of revenue raised by eliminating tax deductions and loopholes.
The Obama administration's response?
Balance?White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer criticized it for not meeting "the test of balance." Another Obama spokesman, Jay Carney, earlier said the president "will not sign a bill that extends those tax rates for the top 2%," as the GOP proposal would do."Until the Republicans in Congress are willing to get serious about asking the wealthiest to pay slightly higher tax rates, we won't be able to achieve a significant, balanced approach to reduce our deficit," Pfeiffer said.
The fiscal cliff deal was made, taxes went up for 77 percent of working Americans when the payroll tax holiday expired and tax rates were allowed to rise on upper income Americans. That "balanced" deal garnered $41 in tax revenue for each $1 in spending cuts.
Jump forward to today: Sequestration is just days away, mandatory spending cuts already signed into law with no additional tax hikes, proposed by the Obama administration.
BuzzFeed reports Obama's insistence on replacing the sequester, which again is all spending cuts, with tax revenue and less cuts than are in the sequestration law.
With the sequester due to hit on March 1, Obama will address reporters at 10:45 Tuesday from an auditorium in the White House complex to increase the pressure on Republicans to agree to raise revenues to offset the cuts, the official said.Go back now and read the Obama administration's refusal to accept the Republicans offer of "eliminating tax deductions and loopholes." in a deal where it would have been appropriate to add revenue, instead of a done deal which is all about spending cuts. Period.
"With less than two weeks before these cuts hit, the President will challenge Republicans to make a very simple choice: do they protect investments in education, health care and national defense or do they continue to prioritize and protect tax loopholes that benefit the very few at the expense of middle and working class Americans," the official said.
Neither Democrats nor Republicans are in favor of the cuts that will automatically occur in just over a week and Republicans in the House of Representatives have already passed two bills to replace those cuts.
FACT: House Republicans are the only ones who have addressed the president’s sequester, and have passed two bills replacing it with responsible cuts and reforms.
BOEHNER QUOTE: “Republicans have twice voted to replace these arbitrary cuts with common-sense cuts and reforms that protect our national defense. … The president’s sequester should be replaced with spending cuts and reforms that will start us on the path to balancing the budget in 10 years.” (Speaker Boehner Statement on the President’s Sequester, 2/5/13)
- The sequester was the Obama administration’s idea – as Bob Woodward has explained, the White House proposed it and insisted it be included in the 2011 debt limit agreement. See page 326 of his book where he makes that clear.
- The House passed the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act (HR. 5652) in May 2012 and the Spending Reduction Act (H.R. 6684) in December. Learn more about them both here.
- Senate Democrats never passed legislation replacing the president’s sequester. It took the GOP-led No Budget, No Pay Act to get them to even consider passing a budget for the first time in four years.
- President Obama doesn’t have a replacement plan either. He hasn’t even said when we’ll see his budget -- which is late, again, and which could have addressed his sequester.
- CLICK HERE FOR A HIGH-RES VERSION OF THE GRAPHIC ABOVE
Barack Obama is desperate to avoid the mandatory cuts his administration proposed and he is once again attempting to blame Republicans by pitching his class warfare rhetoric.
