–House Speaker: Obama’s Tax Cut Plan ‘Just Plain Nuts’
–Boehner Says He And Obama Came ‘Pretty Close’ To Deficit Deal in 2011
–Expects ‘Hundreds of Thousands of Pink Slips’ Before Election

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Speaker John Boehner Thursday scorched
President Obama for offering a tax cut plan that he called “just plain
nuts,” adding that the House’s tax cuts votes Wednesday showed there is
“bipartisan opposition” to the president’s tax package.

At a briefing, Boehner dismissed the tax cut package that was
approved by the Senate last week, and supported by Obama, that extends
all the Bush-era tax cuts for a year for those making $250,000 or less.

The House voted Wednesday to approve Republican legislation to
renew all Bush tax cuts for another year. The House approved the GOP tax
cut bill on a 255 to 171 vote.

Also Wednesday, the House rejected the Democratic plan to extend
Bush-era tax cuts only for those families making $250,000 or less. The
Democratic plan was defeated on a 170 to 257 vote.

In both votes, about 20 Democrats voted with the GOP majority.

Boehner continued to blame Democrats for the scheduled
across-the-board spending cuts that were mandated by the failure of the
Super Committee last year.

He noted that the House has already voted to replace the scheduled
$110 billion in spending cuts for the 2013 fiscal year that are set to
begin in January.

Boehner said he is troubled by the looming defense cuts that are
mandated by the sequestration process, saying this will endanger the
nation’s security.

He said Obama is “AWOL” on the effort to replace the sequestration
process.

Boehner predicted that unless the sequestration process is replaced
there will be “hundreds of thousands of pink slips floating around
America” in the weeks before the November election.

Boehner urged Democrats to reverse their stances on both tax cuts
and sequestration, adding that if they do this he will call the House
back in session in August to negotiate the final details of the
legislation.

While sharply critical of Obama and congressional Democrats,
Boehner said that he and the president came “pretty close” to a
comprehensive deficit reduction agreement last year.

** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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