Tax Rates
Obama has stressed that no deal is possible without letting income tax rates rise for the top 2 percent of earners. All rates will increase without a deal as tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush expire in 2013. Both sides say they don’t want that to occur for 98 percent of taxpayers.
In a Bloomberg Television interview this week, Obama signaled he’s ready to make concessions on entitlements, saying “I don’t expect Republicans to agree to any plan where they’re just betting on the come that entitlement reform will happen.”
Yesterday’s Democratic comments coincide with signs that the once-unified opposition among Republicans on the tax-rate issue is splintering.
‘All Options’
A few dozen Republican lawmakers have signed a bipartisan letter calling for “all options” to be considered on taxes and entitlement programs in the deficit-reduction talks, even as Boehner has insisted that his party won’t agree to higher tax rates for anyone.
A Republican leader of the petition to consider all revenue options, Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho, said he could accept higher tax rates for married couples earning more than $500,000 a year in exchange for an overhaul of entitlement programs.
Obama wants to let tax rates increase for individuals with incomes above $200,000 annually and for married couples with incomes exceeding $250,000.
Durbin expressed openness to Simpson’s suggestion to raise the income threshold for higher tax rates.
“If you’ve been around here long enough, you know there’s going to be some give on both sides,” Durbin said. “As the president said, and I’ll just leave it in his words, ‘I’m open to good ideas.’”