Stabenow: Dems won't balance budget on 'backs of middle class’

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) applauded House Democrats on Tuesday for filing a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on the Senate's bill to extend the Bush-era tax rates for the middle class.

“I commend Nancy Pelosi for now taking up a discharge petition,” Stabenow said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Now we have 27 days for the House to get this done ... for the House to stop holding middle-class families hostage, while we work out an agreement to get deficit reduction.”

Democrats are calling on Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to hold a vote on the Senate-passed Middle Class Tax Cut Act, which would extend Bush-era tax rates only on incomes below $250,000 a year. But Republicans have said raising taxes on the wealthy hurts small businesses and job growth.

Lawmakers are working on a deficit-reduction plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff," which is set to take place at the beginning of next year when Bush-era tax rates expire and sequestration takes effect.

Boehner released a $2.2 trillion deficit-reduction package Monday, but Democrats said the $800 billion in tax revenue in his plan would harm the middle class by eliminating tax deductions typically taken advantage of by working families.

“Their idea of revenue is to keep tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year and instead getting rid of deductions that help middle-class families,” Stabenow said. 

Stabenow said her party will not accept a plan that’s “flunks the test of balance” and will not “balance the budget on the backs of middle class families.”

“If taxes go up on middle-class families on Jan. 1, they’ll know who’s responsible,” Stabenow said. “Pass it now so the overwhelming number of families in this community have certainty.”

---