Hensarling states GOP is willing to think about new Dem tax proposals
The Republican co-chairman of the deficit-reduction supercommittee on Tuesday indicated he and his party were willing to listen to proposals from Democrats to think about higher taxes to reduce the deficit.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) walked back a statement he made Tuesday on television, when he stated Republicans “have gone as far as we feel we can go” by offering to raise $250 billion in new tax revenues.
Briefing reporters Wednesday, Hensarling stated Republicans would be “more than happy to negotiate” around a new offer from Democrats and pointedly declined to state whether $250 billion was the maximum in new revenue the GOP could accept.
“I’m waiting for the Democrats to put fundamental reform on the table,” Hensarling said. He called on Democrats to make an offer that included significant changes to Medicare, Medicaid and overall health-care spending. “I’m not going to negotiate against myself. That is one offer we have put on the table that they can accept.”
His comments came as Democratic members of the panel criticized his comments in an appearance Tuesday on CNBC, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) calling them “not helpful.”
“We wait for their solution, so I’m not rejecting any offer out of hand,” Hensarling stated Wednesday. “Quite the opposite. I’m still waiting for a new offer to be put on the table. … Should that offer come, I am more than happy to negotiate around that offer.”
Hensarling stated Republicans had made “multiple offers” but would not describe any of them except for the one that has become public: a $1.2 trillion deficit plan from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that includes $250 billion in what Hensarling called “static tax revenue.”
The latest Democratic offer made public called for $1 trillion in new taxes as part of a $2.3 trillion overall proposal.
Hensarling stated Republicans would not change their offer until they receive a counterproposal from Democrats. Earlier Wednesday, a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), stated both sides needed to give more in the negotiations.
The supercommittee has until Nov. 23 to approve a plan, but Hensarling noted that it must submit proposals to the Congressional Budget Office by Monday.
“We continue to meet, and we continue to negotiate, but in the back of our minds we know the stroke of midnight is coming soon,” he said.
Hensarling noted that he told President Obama in a phone call last Friday that he wanted the president to clarify or rescind a veto threat he issued to Congress back in September, when he stated he would reject any plan to overhaul entitlement programs without asking the wealthy to pay more in taxes.
“His veto threat has been widely interpreted to mean there can be no reforms of our unsustainable Medicare and health-care spending until attached to a trillion-dollar tax increase that we believe fundamentally would make the jobs crisis even worse,” Hensarling said.
Republican and Democratic members of the supercommittee have met separately throughout the day, and Hensarling stated there have been additional phone conversations among the members.
“As I’ve stated throughout this process, I am not giving up hope until that stroke of midnight,” he said.
source : thehill.com
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Submited at Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 at 9:00 pm on Politics by samantha
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