McConnell Says No To Tax Hikes

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stepped up and introduced a firm rebuff to the Obama planned legislation to create more class warfare in the form of picking winners and losers as it pertains to income tax rates. On a Sunday morning chat show,House Minority Leader Boehner seemed to step into the trap set by President Obama and said he would vote in favor of extending tax cuts to the middle class if that was the only tax cut legislation he could get. He threw the tax cut extension to upper income earners under the bus, essentially. The slobbering press made much of this slip on Boehner's part - especially since Boehner is receiving so much play in the media as the new whipping boy of Team Obama. Press Secretary Gibbs has even been going back and forth with Boehner in a Twitter war of words. Is this appropriate behavior for the Obama administration? Evidently they think so, what with the example set from the top, from the President himself.

From The Washington Times:
I'm introducing legislation today that ensures that no one in this country will pay higher income taxes next year than they are right now," Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor. "We can't let the people who've been hit hardest by this recession and who need to create the jobs that will get out of it foot the bill for the Democrats' two-year adventure in expanded government."

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said, "I will do everything in my power to stop President Obama and Speaker Pelosi from raising taxes on working families, small-business people, and investors." And, continuing on the circling of the wagons, House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence said at a Sunday rally in his home state of Indiana, "No American should face a tax increase in January...not one. We will not compromise our economy to accommodate the class warfare rhetoric of this administration."

From the Daily Caller:
In a statement delivered on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, McConnell drew a clear line about the potential tax hikes, and announced that he would draft legislation that he said would ensure that “no one in this country will pay higher income taxes next year than they are right now.”

“Democrat leaders need to listen to what the American people have been shouting at us for the past 19 months: the reckless spending has got to stop. So far, they’ve made no concrete concessions. But now it’s time they join Republicans, stand up to the administration, and declare that the spending spree is over,” McConnell said in the statement. “Republicans are offering a choice: more of the same or the new direction Americans are asking for.”


Senator Cornyn (R-TX) released his statement of support of Senator McConnell's bill: U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Finance Committee and Republican Leadership, has cosponsored legislation, The Tax Hike Prevention Act, introduced by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) that would permanently extend the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts at a time that unemployment remains high and job creation is stagnant.

“With millions of Americans facing the largest tax increase in the nation’s history and many still trying to make ends meet, this bill will protect our families, seniors, and small businesses who are trying to weather this economic storm,” said Senator Cornyn. “Raising taxes is the last thing we should be doing during a recession. If these tax cuts are not permanently extended Texans will send more of their hard-earned dollars to Washington, while small businesses, the backbone of our economy, will remain on the sidelines in the face of more economic uncertainty.”

To amend his poor choice of Sunday morning statement, Boehner released a statement Sunday evening calling on Democrats to "pass legislation to cut spending and freeze tax rates without any further delay."

That's more like it, Mr. Boehner.