Obama's Partially Recycled Proposal to Trade Tax Reform for Jobs
President Obama will outline another possible compromise with Republicans in a speech in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Tuesday, one that House Republicans have basically already rejected.
.President Obama will outline another possible compromise with Republicans in a speech in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Tuesday, one that House Republicans seem to have basically already rejected. House Speaker John Boehner's spokesman dismissed the proposed bargain on Tuesday morning. According to CNN's Jake Tapper, the White House called Boehner's office on Monday, and left a message about the idea. The call was not returned.
Obama will call for overhauling corporate tax rates, and using the one-time extra money it would bring in to pay for infrastructure and jobs, The Wall Street Journal reports. Last year, Obama has offered to lower the corporate rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, while cutting tax loopholes, and overhauling individual rates as well. Since Republicans didn't bite, Obama is dropping the proposal for individual rates.
Update: Obama essentially offered a five-point jobs plan: 1) increase the number of "manufacturing innovation institutes" to create high-tech jobs to 45, 2) repair infrastructure, including 100,000 bridges, 3) sustain investments in renewable energy research and tech, 4) sign more trade deals to draw foreign investment, and 5) encourage companies to hire the long-term unemployed. As for taxes, he said he's "willing to simplify our tax code in a way that closes those loopholes, ends incentives to ship jobs overseas" as well as creating "tax incentives for manufacturers that bring jobs home."
As he did last week, the president contrasted what he seems to think of as Good Republicans vs. Bad republicans. Obama praised cooperative members of the GOP, saying, "growing number of Republican senators are trying to get things done" and criticizing "a faction of Republicans in Congress hurt a fragile recovery by saying they wouldn’t pay the very bills Congress rang up in the first place, and threaten to shut down the people’s government if they can’t shut down Obamacare."
Original post: Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel, does not sound interested in Obama's proposal. "This 'grand bargain' allows President Obama to support President Obama's position on taxes and President Obama's position on spending, while leaving small businesses and American families behind," Steel said, as NBC News reports. Because many small businesses file as individuals, the highest earners would still be stuck with the 39.6 percent individual rate.
In the Senate Finance Committee, senators of both parties have been urged to submit their own ideas for tax reform. But being tied to such ideas is risky. CNN Money's Jeanne Sahadi reported earlier this week that the finance committee asked members to say which loopholes they'd like to keep, and promised what they proposed would remain secret for 50 years. (The memo read, "COMMITTEE CONFIDENTIAL. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION. DO NOT COPY. These materials may not be released to the public from the National Archives or by the Finance Committee prior to December 31, 2064.") Politico reported that most senators planned to submit ideas, though John McCain was skeptical of the Kennedy assassination investigation-level of secrecy.
Obama has started a series of speeches to frame this fall's fight with Republicans over the debt ceiling and funding the government. Last week's speeches focused on inequality, praising cooperative Republican senators, and infrastructure. His speech on Tuesday begins at 2p.m.