Schumer Leads Senate Dems In Holding Economy Hostage For Tax Hikes

This Is The Same Sen. Chuck Schumer Who Demanded Increased Saudi Jobs And Arabia Energy Production Rather Than Increasing American Energy And American Jobs.

The New York Times reported yesterday, “Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat, threw cold water on Tuesday on one emerging approach for striking a bipartisan deficit-reduction deal — an overhaul of the tax code that lowers top income tax rates but raises more revenue. Mr. Schumer’s position complicates efforts to seal a deal before January, when the ‘fiscal cliff’ of tax increases and automatic spending cuts goes into effect.”

ABC News added, “In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Schumer shot down the plan that is currently being negotiated by small groups of lawmakers behind closed doors. That plan embraces the tax reform model of lowering tax rates for all and closing loopholes. . . . Everyone from the president’s fiscal commission – more commonly known as the Bowle’s Simpson commission to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney have championed some version of this type of ‘lower the rates, broaden the base’ reform. But Schumer said today the version being negotiated on Capitol Hill needs to be flat-out scrapped.”

And Politico points out, “It’s a dramatic departure from the 1986 rate-lowering method of tax reform that congressional tax writers have spent the past several years trying to replicate. It’s also a rejection of the type of tax code overhaul endorsed by groups such as the Simpson-Bowles commission and the Gang of Six. If embraced by other Democrats, Schumer’s approach would represent a hardening of the party’s position on taxes and could complicate the prospects for a bipartisan deal before year’s end to avoid the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and the start of automatic budget cuts.”

So once again, a top Senate Democrat has taken the position that raising taxes is apparently the most important thing to the majority party in the Senate. Senate Democrats are so determined to raise taxes, they’re putting it ahead of economic considerations and bipartisan tax reform ideas.

Responding to Schumer’s retrenchment on tax increases, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Sen. Schumer is now the second member of the Senate Democrat leadership to endorse ‘Thelma and Louise economics.’ Senior Democrats are now openly acknowledging their plan to hold the economy hostage to massive, job-killing tax hikes, and espousing the fiscally irresponsible view that says the country should be driven off the fiscal cliff rather than Congress working toward bipartisan solutions to reform and strengthen entitlements without killing jobs. And he admits that Democrats don’t intend to reform entitlements or our tax code as a means to restore fiscal sanity, create jobs, or protect our seniors, but rather to use the effort as a lure to entice support for even more job-killing tax hikes. The Speaker and I have called for extending all the income tax rates for a year, ensuring that no one sees an income tax hike in January and preventing the economic harm and massive job loss that will come if Sen. Schumer and Washington Democrats follow through on their threats to drive us off the fiscal cliff. This uncertainty needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. We need to find a way to deal with the sequester not by cutting a penny less, but by intelligently making the decisions that are necessary to keep our promise to reduce the debt by $2.1 trillion and to get our economy back on track.”

Suggested Articles:

• Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN): Election could erase medical device tax
• The New York Times: Schumer Shakes Up Deficit Talks With Call to Raise Taxes on the Rich
• Politico: “Schumer’s approach would represent a hardening of the party’s position on taxes”
• ICYMI: Orlando Sentinel: Darden tests limiting worker hours as health-care changes loom

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