An article posted this afternoon on the CBS New’s Political Hotsheet confirmed again what most have expected: We should not anticipate cooperation in Congress on major tax questions before the November elections.
The article is well titled, “Both parties dig in for looming end-of-year fiscal battle.”
A single salient quote from Senate Majority Leader Harry Read says just about all we need to know.
“Once Republicans are willing to abandon their commitment to more tax breaks for multi-millionaires and special interests and their plans to end Medicare, I am confident that we can reach an agreement. Unfortunately, it appears that Republicans’ blind adherence to Tea Party extremism is making it impossible to reach this sort of balanced agreement before the election.”
Of course, Senator Reid’s comment is heavily biased and I personally do not agree with his point of view. I am sure he is spot on, however, when he predicts the difficulty of fiscal reconciliation between the political parties.
In light of these developments, Paul Suplizio, President of the WOTC Coalition recommends pushing now for passage of a smaller tax bill, focusing on WOTC and other expired tax provision. Coalition members received the following correspondence from Mr. Suplizio this afternoon. I reprint it here with his permission.
From: Paul Suplizio
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 2:08 PM
To: ‘Paul Suplizio’
Subject: Senator Reid Expects No Major Tax Deal Till After Election
May 22, 2012
Senator Harry Reid has rejected a House Republican request to move promptly to extend the Bush tax cuts to prevent a $300 billion tax hike from taking effect next year.
Reid said it was impossible to reach agreement so long as Republicans refuse to agree to a deficit reduction plan that includes tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.
Taking Senator Reid at his word, this means our course of action between now and the elections is to aim to win passage of a “smaller” tax bill, such as a bill extending WOTC and other expiring provisions. This would fit in with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s strategy of foregoing efforts for a “grand compromise” on the budget and hewing to narrow, incremental bills that stand a chance of passage.
Our efforts with House leaders, then, should be to report out an extenders bill as soon as possible, without waiting for the larger “down payment on tax reform” that Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp would like to introduce.
We should be talking to our contacts in the House in this vein as we lobby them to co-sponsor H.R. 2082. The message should be, “Would you talk to Chairman Camp and Majority Leader Cantor and urge them to consider moving a tax extenders bill now, without waiting for big items like tax reform and extending the Bush tax cuts?”
Please keep sending reports on the campaign in your state. We cannot win this fight without efforts by WOTC users in the states contacting their congressmen and senators in the strong, even passionate terms used by Sugar Creek Packing in the letter we forwarded yesterday.
PAUL E. SUPLIZIO
President, WOTC Coalition
