–House Minority Whip Hoyer: Hill Should Pass Clean Debt Ceiling Hike
–Backs Obama’s Tax Cut Plan, Still Prefers ‘Clinton Rates’
–Sequestration Should Be Replaced By Bold Deficit Plan
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Tuesday the
Democratic plan to avert the coming fiscal cliff by passing a “big,
bold, and bipartisan” deficit reduction plan would help boost growth and
cut budget deficits.
At a briefing, Hoyer said a deficit reduction plan along the lines
of the Simpson-Bowles package should be enacted as a replacement to the
fiscal cliff.
Hoyer praised President Obama’s plan to extend Bush era tax cuts
only for those families making $250,000 or less.
“The President’s formulation is correct,” Hoyer said.
He said failing to pass this package of tax cuts would be “inimical
to the economy and a depressant to the growth of the economy.”
But he added that “the Clinton tax rates got it about right.”
Hoyer said the coming across-the-board spending cuts, called
sequestration, should not be dropped without a replacement deficit
reduction package.
He hammered Republicans for insisting on attaching conditions to
the debt ceiling agreement last year–and now trying to flee from the
spending cuts that have been triggered by this process.
“They imposed a fiscal discipline but don’t want to live with the
fiscal discipline. They want to have it both ways,” Hoyer said.
Hoyer called for a clean congressional vote to pass a debt ceiling
increase in the “very near term,” but he did not have a recommendation
for how much the debt ceiling increase should be.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that certain cash
management moves could delay the need for a debt ceiling increase until
next year.
** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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