Fiscal Responsibility
Over the years, Democrats have shown our commitment to restoring fiscal responsibility by taking actions that have reduced our national deficit while investing in the American people’s priorities. During the 117th Congress, House Democrats delivered the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which will reduce the deficit by over $300 billion while lowering health care and energy costs and taking action on climate change. In sharp contrast, Republicans jammed their 2017 Trump Tax Scam through Congress without a single hearing, gifting trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax handouts to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations while leaving our nation with ballooning deficits. They have repeatedly held our economy hostage to benefit their irresponsible ideological agenda, whether creating artificial “fiscal cliffs,” shutting down the government, or bringing our nation to the brink of defaulting on its obligations. With other landmark legislation delivered during the 117th Congress, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act, Democrats have worked to invest in economic recovery, job creation, all while cutting the deficit in half last year. Democrats are committed to continuing our work to restore sound, long-term fiscal management so future generations can afford to invest in opportunities, secure the American Dream, and ensure workers have the tools to Make It In America.
It think it's a positive sign once again that the President and [Speaker] John Boehner are sitting down. I've talked to both of them. They both want to get to an agreement. ... Nobody's walking away from the table. The stakes are very high here, the hopes of America are keen on us getting to success, and failure is going to have real consequences, so I'm very hopeful that [Speaker] John Boehner and President Obama … are talking [about] a way to get us to an agreement that Congress can consider and hopefully pass so that America will have the confidence that we have placed ourselves on a fiscally-sustainable, credible path for the long-term. I think that's what America wants.
As we get closer to the deadline to reach a solution to the fiscal cliff, a growing number of Republicans have publicly supported the idea of passing middle class tax cuts now to protect families and small businesses from a tax increase on January 1 while negotiations continue on higher tax rates for the wealthiest two percent in our country:
Over the weekend, more Republicans joined with lawmakers like Senator Tom Coburn and Congressman Steve LaTourette in saying that higher tax rates for the top 2 percent of incomes will be part of any balanced agreement to avert the fiscal cliff. Senator Bob Corker said on Fox News Sunday:
MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC WHIP
Today’s jobs report showed that our economy is improving, but to solidify our economic recovery, Congress must act swiftly to avert the fiscal cliff, extend middle class tax cuts, and promote job creation through proposals like Democrats’ Make It In America jobs legislation.
More and more Republicans are joining the chorus calling for a balanced, bipartisan solution to the fiscal cliff that protects middle-class families while asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share through higher tax rates. As Dana Milibank says in his Washington Post column:
When I say everything needs to be on the table… I want everybody to put their cards on the table and tell me what they’re going to do. … Now there’s some things we are absolutely not going to do… we’re not going to voucherize Medicare, we are not going to privatize Social Security. We believe very strongly that we need additional revenues if we’re going to get our country on a fiscally sound basis.
In case you haven’t seen it already, we wanted to pass along Sen. Tom Coburn’s common-sense remarks on the need to include revenues in an agreement to prevent the fiscal cliff. And by “revenues,” he means “rates.”
From MSNBC’s “Moring Joe” today:
“All I said yesterday was … we need a balanced package and we need to all come to the table honestly, realizing we have differences of opinion, but also realizing this is a math problem. It shouldn't be a philosophical problem or ideological or partisan problem, it's a math problem. We have to get America on a fiscally sustainable path and in order to do that, we’re going to have to have a balanced package. We’re going to have to look at additional revenues.”
Today, I signed the discharge petition filed by Rep. Tim Walz that would bring to the Floor an extension of tax cuts for 98% of Americans and 97% of small businesses. These middle class tax cuts were extended by the Senate in July, and the House ought to take action immediately to provide certainty to families and small businesses that their taxes won’t go up on January 1.
With time running out, it is imperative that Congress take action before the fiscal cliff hits to prevent tax increases on middle class families and turn off the damaging and arbitrary spending cuts of the sequester. Going off the cliff isn’t an option. It will take a balanced solution, and for the first time it looks like some Republicans are starting to agree.