Hatch urges extending all Bush-era tax rates to avert ‘Taxmageddon’
By Russell Berman – 07/28/12 06:00 AM ET
A senior Senate Republican used the party’s weekly address to call for a full extension of the George W. Bush-era tax rates to avoid “Taxmageddon” at year’s end.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, pushed for congressional action to prevent tax hikes through an expiration of the current tax rates or an unadjusted Alternative Minimum Tax.
“In just over five months, middle-class families, job creators and seniors will get hit with a massive tax hike unless the president and Congress act,” Hatch said. “This would mean that taxes would go up on virtually every single taxpaying American.”
The tax battle has taken center stage in Washington in the two weeks before lawmakers go on their annual prolonged summer recess. The Senate on Wednesday approved a Democratic plan to extend the lower Bush-era tax rates on family income up to $250,000 and rejected a GOP plan to extend the rates across the board. The House is expected to vote on both plans this week, with the Republican proposal likely to win passage.
Republicans have labeled the Democratic plan a “small business tax hike” that will hit job creators.
“The uncertainty caused by this tax crisis -or Taxmageddon – is contributing to America’s lackluster economic recovery,” said Hatch, the author of the GOP plan. “That’s not a Republican talking point; that’s based on what job creators across the country are saying.”
He noted that Obama had agreed to extend the full slate of tax rates in 2010 when the economy was in a similarly precarious condition.
