Boehner Counters Obama Budget Offer With Fewer Revenues, Large Entitlement Cuts

[flpoljunkie]

Source: Talkingpointsmemo

Boehner Counters Obama Budget Offer With Fewer Revenues, Large Entitlement Cuts

BRIAN BEUTLER 3:22 PM EST, MONDAY DECEMBER 3, 2012

House Speaker John Boehner says President Obama should drop his proposal to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts at the end of the year, and instead embrace a plan outlined by Erskine Bowles -- co-chair of the White House's commission on fiscal responsibility -- at a congressional hearing last November.

"The new revenue in the Bowles plan would not be achieved through higher tax rates, which we continue to oppose and will not agree to in order to protect small businesses and our ailing economy," Boehner writes in a letter (PDF) to Obama. "Instead, new revenue would be generated through pro-growth tax reform that closes special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates. On the spending side, the Bowles recommendation would cut more than $900 billion in mandatory spending and another $300 billion in discretionary spending. These cuts would be over and above the spending reductions enacted in the Budget Control Act."

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/boehner-counters-obama-budget-offer-with-fewer-revenues

Read more: Link to source

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Boehner's laughable offer conveniently fails to follow the part of Simpson Bowles which assumed the Bush tax cuts would not be extended for those making over $250,000. What a shock!

[louis-t]

1. He really thinks people are as stupid as he is.

Cute buzzwords, though. "Pro-growth tax reform" and "special interest loopholes" which mean nothing to repugs.

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. Heck ...

those phrases mean nothing to anyone, so long as neither are defined through specifics.

[LongTomH]

15. "Special interest loopholes" refer to tax deductions that favor the Middle Class

Ex: The mortgage deduction.

Get boned, Boner!!!!!

[ruffburr]

2. I have but one response Mr.Boner-

FUCK YOU TAN MAN AND THE TEABAGS YOU RODE IN WITH!!!

[liberal N proud]

3. On the backs of the middle class and poor

All so the FUCKING RICH MF's can soak some more into their offshore accounts.

[Javaman]

4. I have a feeling this is one game of chicken the repukes are going to lose

and lose big on.

Good.

[Hydra]

6. I just saw this come up on MSM sites

And if I hear anyone with a D from the Beltway say this is a great idea(again) I'm not going to be happy.

[lyingsackofmitt]

7. How did a guy

this fucking stoopid get to be speaker? Hey boner, when your car runs out of gas, do you change the tires instead of filling the tank? Cutting SS and Medicare has nothing to do with the budget. Go fuck yourself!

[Angry Dragon]

8. This is a huge part of the problem

The President laid out his desires.
It is not up to the President to enter into anything else.
It is the House that needs to sit down and work it out. Not the President
Boner has forgotten how to do his job, if he ever did ..............

[Capt.Rocky300]

10. As Rachel has said many times.......

"Mr. Boehner is not very good at his job."

[lalalu]

9. I hope he gets scrooged

this Christmas by 3 avenging angels.

[Panasonic]

11. Obama should counter with removing entitlements from the plan and hit oil & gas and defense budgets

hard - NO LOOPHOLES

Time to end all subsidies to oil & gas industry as long as they are excessively profitable, and hit it with a huge tax and an audit of all their finances for 100 years, minimum.

[hedgehog]

12. Go to the PDF of the letter at the link and you'll find "entitlements"

apparently means the SNAP program - nutrition for pregnant and nursing mothers and small children!

[on point]

13. Time to reject this Supply Side Dogma nonsense. Raise the rates, cut defense. NO OTHER CUTS!

[Dont call me Shirley]

14. OMG! STOP calling insurance programs entitlements!

The only real entiltlement programs are the tax breaks, loopholes, credits and subsidies for the wealthy and their megacorporations!

[John2]

16. Bowles\Simpson

was rejected, but they tried to present it as some bipartison agreement that would have passed. It never had a chance to pass, and I'm glad it didn't. Even President Obama wasn't very excited about what came out of it. So for Bob Woodward and the media to portray it as a good agreement was bogus.

The Democratic Co-Chair ( Erskine Bowles) is a creature of Wall Street. The only political position that he had in the Clinton Administration is when, Clinton offered him a job to work on the budget, but Bowles was never a fixture in the Clinton Administration. He was only there for a short while and then resigned to go back to the private sector. He went into Banking and started an equity firm, just like Mitt Romney. He never won any political office in North Carolina. He also was hired by the University of North Carolina and he was the person that helped to bring Holden Thorpe as Chancellor at UNC. We know what happened under Thorpe's Administration at UNC. Thorpe was elitist as they come.

I don't have too much of a high opinion of Erskine Bowles and identify him as just another conservative white Democrat out of North Carolina, that hates entitlements and more favorable to Wall Street. So he was put head of this committee by association with the Clinton Administration, which in essence placed a Republican from Wyoming and Conservative white Democrat, deciding on the fate of the Fiscal Cliff. Every group and liberal politician ended up rejecting Bowles\Simpson. As far as the Republicans objections, it didn't go far enough during after the 2010 mid term elections. In other words, the Republicans were feeling their oats, just like President Obama apparently is feeling now. And there is a side note to this, Senator Durbin of Illinois also rejected it, if some really want to know where he really stands. Durbin disagreed with the spending cuts and is apparently on the same lines with President Obama. He also does not think Social Security should be part of the talks.

[Samantha]

17. Not that I consider him an authority on anything, but even Ryan refused to support it

"The 18-member panel needed 14 votes to send a 10-year plan to trim the debt to Congress for a vote. As his party’s then- ranking member on the House Budget Committee, Ryan led a bloc of three House Republicans who denied the additional votes needed."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-13/ryan-opposed-debt-reduction-plan-romney-used-as-a-model

Sam

[LeftInTX]

19. Ryan rejected Bowles-Simpson for the wrong reasons

He rejected it because of his pledge to Grover.

[Samantha]

20. Yes, I know, the article at the link points that out

It still sounds strange for the statement to be made the B/S should be adopted when even 3 Republicans walked away (for whatever reason).

Sam

[skrempi313]

18. Speaker Boehner: The Protector Of The Rich

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

21. In other words - raise taxes on the middle class.

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/how_the_gop_plan_might_raise_taxes_on_the_middle_class/

[OldDem2012]

22. He didn't learn a thing from the election, did he? What a loser. nt.

[DallasNE]

23. The Audience For Boehner's Letter Is Not The President

It is a political document written for the purpose of releasing it for public consumption. Boehner, in other words is in campaign mode. The very first sentence is a giant stretch where he calls the recent election a status-quo election. Republicans lost ground at every level, local all of the way up to President with the exception of picking up a net one Governor's chair.

And it is loaded with insults and shows disrespect for the office of President. Boehner and the rest of the signers should be embarrassed by this letter that is long on pettiness.

[blackspade]

24. Boner is so transparently shitty.