Griffin, Womack favor plan

Ross against, Crawford on fence to Boehner offer

Thursday, December 20, 2012

— Speaker of the House John Boehner’s latest proposal in the “fiscal cliff” negotiations - to raise taxes only on millionaires while freezing tax rates on others - got a mixed reception from Arkansas’ House delegation Wednesday.

Though the plan raises taxes, a violation of a core Republican Party tenet, some Arkansas congressmen said focusing the increase on the very wealthy would shield the vast majority of their constituents from a tax increase next year.

“A ticking time bomb is going to explode in January. It’s not perfect, but it prevents a tax increase on 98.8 percent of all Americans,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, Republican, referring to Boehner’s plan.

President Barack Obama, who campaigned on increasing taxes for individuals making more than $250,000 a year, this week offered to increase the threshold to $400,000.

Boehner’s counteroffer, which he called “Plan B,” was to raise tax rates from 35 percent to 39.6 percent on taxpayers earning more than $1 million and keep the tax cuts enacted in the George W. Bush presidency and extended under Obama in place for those with lower incomes.

The two are attempting to avoid the combination of automatic spending cuts and the expiration of the Bushera tax cuts that many are calling the fiscal cliff.

Griffin and Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Womack said they supported Boehner’s plan but cautioned that a final deal is far from complete. Republican U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford has not taken a stance on the plan, which will receive a vote in the House as early as today.

Arkansas’ only House Democrat, Rep. Mike Ross, said he was against Boehner’s proposal because it won’t do enough to get the deficit under control.

Boehner pitched the plan Tuesday to House Republicans.

As he walked out of the meeting, Womack said the tone among his fellow Republicans was “contentious.” Some members, he said, were against raising rates on any taxpayers as part of a deal because many Republicans have long pledged to constituents that they would not vote for any tax increase.

“Some will call it acquiescence, caving in,” Womack said. “I get that.”

But Womack said passing a tax increase on a small number of taxpayers while keeping lower rates in place for everyone else would give Republicans “a little stronger negotiating position,” during the next Congress, which will convene in January.

Then, Womack said, Democrats “can no longer say ‘That sorry GOP majority in the House has just stonewalled on revenues.’”

Womack said the plan avoids a tax increase on more than 98 percent of the American public. He anticipated debates in March on raising the nation’s debt limit and extending federalspending.

“That’s where we can really attack the spending part of the equation,” he said.

Though he hadn’t taken a position on Boehner’s plan, Crawford criticized it for focusing on the revenue sideof the federal ledger - taxes - instead of prescribing spending cuts.

“People are getting really frustrated with the debate being all about taxes,” he said. “The real problem is spending, and we’re not talking about that.”

Ross said there are very few constituents in the state’s 4th Congressional District, which he represents, who make more than $1 million annually.

“You can probably count them on one hand,” said Ross, who has announced his retirement and will not return to Congress next year.

“The whole point of raising taxes is to generate revenue, and [Boehner’s plan] is not going to generate any revenue.” In a news conference Wednesday, the president criticized Boehner’s plan because it would cut unemployment benefits. He said the fact that Republicans hadn’t accepted his offer is “puzzling.”

“If you’re making $900,000, somehow he thinks that you can’t pay a little more in taxes,” Obama said, referring to Boehner’s plan.

Griffin said Obama was playing “pure cynical class politics” by singling out high-wage earners for a tax increase.

Though he said he hoped a final deal would include spending cuts, he said his first priority was to prevent a tax increase.

He said that Boehner’s plan was consistent with Ronald Reagan’s maxim that to successfully negotiate, “you get 80 percent of what you want and then you come back and get the remaining 20 percent later.”

Front Section, Pages 7 on 12/20/2012