–House Minority Leader’s Sunday Comments Seemed To Signal Accommodation
–But Key House, Senate Republicans Seek To End All Bush Tax Cuts
–Senate Minority Leader Backs $4 Trillion Tax Cut Plan
–Senate To Vote On Three Amendments to Small Business Lending Bill

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – As lawmakers returned to Washington for the fall
legislative session, congressional Republicans appeared to have settled
on a clear tax message.

It was that failure to extend all of the Bush era tax cuts would
constitute a large tax increase that would hurt an already battered
American economy.

But House Minority Leader John Boehner appears to have complicated
that message by saying he would reluctantly be willing to accept the tax
cut approach pushed by President Obama and many congressional Democrats.

The Obama administration and congressional Democrats have
repeatedly said that tax cuts for individuals making up to $200,000 and
couples earning up to $250,000 should be extended.

Congressional Republican leaders have supported extending all of
the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.

In a Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” Boehner said he
strongly prefers the permanent extension of all of the Bush tax cuts of
2001 and 2003. But he said for the first time that he might be willing
to accept Obama’s approach.

“If the only option I have is to vote for some of those tax
reductions, I will vote for that,” Boehner said.

Boehner later released a statement saying he still wants to pass an
extension of all Bush era tax cuts.

“Republicans are unified: to boost our economy, we need to stop ALL
tax hikes and cut spending now,” he said Monday.

A number of House Republicans, including Minority Whip Eric Cantor
and Rep. Dave Camp, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means
Committee, have issued statements since Sunday saying that all of the
2001 and 2003 tax cuts should be renewed.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went further Monday, saying
that he will push a bill that would extend all of the 2001 and 2003 tax
cuts, as well as make adjustments for the alternative minimum tax and
the estate tax. The cost of McConnell’s tax cut package is about $4
trillion over a decade.

In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell said that extending only
those tax cuts for middle class tax payers would cause a “massive tax
hike on the very people who will dig us out of the recession.”

“We can’t allow for America’s job creators to pay for Democrats’
out-of-control spending,” he said.

Bill Frenzel, a former Republican congressman and now a guest
scholar at the Brookings Institution, said he expects a tough, partisan
tax debate over the next three or four weeks in Congress.

“It’s going to be terribly untidy. When Congress tries to do major
legislation just weeks before an election you probably should not expect
much good to come out of it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Senate will vote Tuesday morning on several
amendments to a $30 billion small business lending bill. Two of the
amendments relate to a provision in the health care law that would
require small businesses to file a 1099 tax report for every vendor
transaction valued at $600 or more.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday the small business
bill is “important legislation” that should be passed soon.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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