Obama to discuss tax cuts with Republicans – avoiding brinkmanship

Obama to discuss tax cuts with Republicans - avoiding brinkmanship

U.S. President Barack Obama said today that he is willing to discuss with Republicans an extension of Bush-era tax cuts that are expiring on December 31.

Fresh from their electoral triumph and subsequently regaining control of the House of Representatives, the Republicans would most likely be much tougher to negotiate with to extend the cuts for taxpayers with high incomes.

President Obama said he does not want “brinkmanship” during Congress’ lame-duck session when he talks to Republicans to extend tax cuts on investments, wages and estates worth millions of dollars which were implemented in 2001 and 2003.

“My goal is to make sure that we don’t have a huge spike in taxes for middle-class families,” Obama said in a press conference at the White House.

The President has made it clear in the past that tax rules favoring high-income taxpayers, those with annual earnings of $200,000, would need to be scrapped. Tim F. Geithner, the Treasury Secretary has said that any extension for that segment would cost the government an added $700 billion in debt. The proposal of the President alone would cost $3 billion.

“My hope is, that given we all have an interest in growing the economy and encouraging job growth, that we’re not going to play brinkmanship but instead we’re going to act responsibly,” Obama said.

The tax-cut extension issue will be one of the first tests for Obama and the winning Republicans in the House to go beyond bipartisanship and advance common goals to revive the still-weak economy.

Posted by James Fried on Monday November 08 2010, 5:52 AM EST. Ref: Bloomberg. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Finance. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0