Hours before a meeting with President Obama at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that any debt-ceiling deals that included tax hikes would be “politically impossible” in the current Congress because most Republicans and many Democrats oppose them.
“Those who are calling for tax hikes as a part of these debt discussions either have amnesia about the fate of similar votes just six months ago — when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress as well as the White House — or they’re acting in bad faith, since we all know that including massive, job-killing tax hikes would be a poison pill,” said McConnell on Monday from the Senate floor. [The Hill]
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will call on the deficit-reduction supercommittee to lay the foundation for an overhaul of the tax code in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington on Thursday. In an address timed as a response to President Obama’s jobs plan, Boehner plans to restate his opposition to tax increases either to pay for job-creation measures or to reduce the deficit, according to a preview circulated by his office. Yet the Speaker is expected to voice support for closing loopholes as part of broader tax reform, which could include eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and other industries. [