Joe Biden: Election A Mandate On Tax Policy
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters the day after the election, said the Obama administration has a mandate on the issue of tax policy heading into the next critical weeks.
"You guys have probably looked at the internals of the vote more than I have so far," Biden said, according to a transcript provided by pool reporters. "But from what it appears is that, on the issue of the tax issue, there was a clear, a clear sort of mandate about people coming much closer to our view about how to deal with tax policy."
What this means in legislative terms was unclear. Biden said he thought corporate tax reform may come quickly, as both parties agree that lowering the overall rate while closing loopholes and ending reductions constitutes common-sense reform. But on the big debates -– what to do about the expiring Bush tax cut and the forthcoming $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts -- the vice president left lingering questions unanswered.
"I don't want to speculate on that," said Biden. "But we are prepared to work with Republican leadership to actually deal with the two overarching problems right now. One is the whole sequester piece, and the other is the tax piece. It's possible you can bifurcate them. It's possible, there's all kinds of potential to be able to reach a rational, principled compromise. But it's going to be an interesting -- I think the most interesting caucus is going to be the Republican caucus."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/joe-biden-election-mandate_n_2089819.html
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