Republicans Eye 2008 and Ratchet Up the Rhetoric on Rangel’s Tax Plan
By CQ Staff | 7:04 AM; Oct. 26, 2007
By Richard Rubin
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt received what he considered a gift on Thursday morning: a ready-made GOP talking point, courtesy of Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel.
And Blunt was grateful.
“Very seldom in politics do your opponents give you this kind of gift,” said Blunt, R-Mo., who proceeded to attack Rangel’s $1.3 trillion tax package (HR 3970), offering a preview of a GOP campaign theme about tax-and-spend Democrats.
The proposal embodies Democratic tax priorities but is complex and unlikely to become law. Democrats constructed the bill to bolster their philosophy of tax fairness: to repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT) and add provisions to ensure that more than 90 million taxpayers benefit while fewer than 2 million receive tax increases.
“Just don’t say it’s a dramatic tax increase, if I’m running around saying that 90 million people are going to get a tax cut,” said Rangel, D-N.Y. “And if you believe that, tell me, who are the people that are getting this tremendous tax increase? And I can count, and 90 million people are not included in that number.”
Washington Arithmetic
That’s the simple part of tax overhaul math. Yet part of the Democratic defense of the plan rests on how they explain the details of the country’s finances. The winner in the 2007-08 tax debate may be the party that best translates the Washington-speak of budgets, baselines and revenue neutrality for voters.
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