Moderate Senate Democrat Endorses 2-Year Extension Of Bush-Era Tax Rates
09 Novembro 2010 - 05:37PM
Dow Jones News
Moderate Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) endorsed a
compromise solution of extending all the Bush-era tax cuts for two
years and then allowing them to expire, becoming the second Senate
lawmaker to back the plan this week.
Bayh said given the weak economic recovery, it doesn't make
sense to let any of the expiring Bush tax credits lapse. But he
said the country is facing a longer term fiscal crisis, and
therefore it wouldn't be affordable to renew the lower tax rates
permanently.
"We need to err on the side of growth for the next couple of
years," Bayh said. "At that point, we have to pivot" and start to
tackle the deficit, he said.
Bayh was speaking to reporters at a press conference at the
Newseum in Washington, D.C. He was speaking alongside Peter
Peterson, who through the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, was
launching a national television campaign drawing attention to the
need to tackle the country's fiscal imbalances.
Bayh's comments come a day after Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah)
said he would be open to a two year extension of all the rates.
Hatch is expected to be the top Republican on the tax-writing
finance panel next year.
When asked what he thought would actually occur when lawmakers
reconvene next week, Bayh said he believed an ultimate compromise
could see rates for people earning less than $200,000 a year
extended permanently, and those for wealthier Americans only
continued for a shorter period of time.
Hatch, and other lawmakers, have rejected that solution out of
hand.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said
that he would like Congress to tackle a comprehensive overhaul of
the U.S. tax code. Until that is done, Conrad said the Bush era tax
rates should be extended.
The tax cuts enacted by former President George W. Bush's
administration in 2001 and 2003 are set to expire at the end of the
year unless they are continued by Congress.
Debate continues to swirl over whether they all should be
extended, or if just those for the so-called middle class earners
should be.
Most Democrats had insisted that the rates for rich Americans be
allowed to revert to their pre-2001 levels, while Republicans have
countered that raising anyone's taxes now could imperil the
economic recovery.
In the wake of the electoral drubbing the Democrats received in
the mid-term elections last week, President Barack Obama and some
senior congressional leaders have said they would be open to a
compromise on the issue.
Bayh is retiring from the Senate at the end of the year. He had
previously said he wanted to extend all the tax cuts
permanently.
-By Corey Boles, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6601;
corey.boles@dowjones.com