Democrats in tax deal to avert shutdown
Source: Agencies |
December 16, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DEMOCRATS backed away from their demand for higher taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend payroll tax cuts for most Americans as Congress struggled to avert a partial government shutdown.
Stopgap funding runs out today at midnight.
Officials said on Wednesday Democrats were drafting a new proposal to extend the payroll tax that likely would not include the millionaires' surtax that Republicans opposed almost unanimously.
As President Barack Obama readies for his re-election campaign, the millionaires' surtax has been described as a political maneuver designed to force Republican lawmakers to choose between protecting the wealthy on the one hand and extending tax cuts for millions on the other. Since Obama took power, Democrats have talked of raising taxes on the wealthy, a proposal that has popular approval but has been met with staunch opposition by Republicans who say it will stall economic growth.
The pre-Christmas arguing caps a contentious year, with Democrats controlling the White House and Senate while Republicans run the House. Lawmakers have engaged in down-to-the-wire drama even when performing the most mundane acts of governing, such as keeping agencies functioning. The tasks are only becoming more politically delicate as the 2012 election year nears.
Throwing out the millionaires tax could require Democrats to agree to politically painful savings elsewhere in the budget to replace the estimated US$140 billion the tax would have raised over a decade.
Stopgap funding runs out today at midnight.
Officials said on Wednesday Democrats were drafting a new proposal to extend the payroll tax that likely would not include the millionaires' surtax that Republicans opposed almost unanimously.
As President Barack Obama readies for his re-election campaign, the millionaires' surtax has been described as a political maneuver designed to force Republican lawmakers to choose between protecting the wealthy on the one hand and extending tax cuts for millions on the other. Since Obama took power, Democrats have talked of raising taxes on the wealthy, a proposal that has popular approval but has been met with staunch opposition by Republicans who say it will stall economic growth.
The pre-Christmas arguing caps a contentious year, with Democrats controlling the White House and Senate while Republicans run the House. Lawmakers have engaged in down-to-the-wire drama even when performing the most mundane acts of governing, such as keeping agencies functioning. The tasks are only becoming more politically delicate as the 2012 election year nears.
Throwing out the millionaires tax could require Democrats to agree to politically painful savings elsewhere in the budget to replace the estimated US$140 billion the tax would have raised over a decade.
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