Camp doesn't rule out tax increases to reduce debt, spur growth

By Vicki Needham - 08/11/11 01:47 PM ET

House Ways and Mean Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), a member of the newly formed debt-cutting supercommittee, said Thursday he's not ruling out tax increases as the panel sets out to cut $1.5 trillion from the deficit.

"Everything is on the table" and tax hikes should be considered if they'll expand the economy, Camp told Reuters in a telephone interview Thursday.

"I don't want to rule anything in or out," he said. "I am willing to discuss all issues that might help us reduce our short- and long-term debt and grow our economy," he said.

"Economic growth and job creation in the private sector — that's what we need to use as a benchmark about any policy, but particularly tax policy."

Still, a Ways and Means spokesman said Camp is firmly opposed to raising taxes.

"Despite a misleading and inaccurate headline that attempts to tell a story when there isn’t one to tell, Chairman Camp’s position on taxes has not changed," the spokesman said.

"When discussing the concept that all potential solutions ought to ‘be on the table’ or that he ‘won’t rule anything in our out,’ he has always emphasized that any potential solution must be looked at through the prism of jobs and whether those proposed solutions would strengthen the economy. Obviously, tax increases wouldn’t make that list."

Because of the current global financial situation, Camp said, the "stakes are even higher" and the panel's members must work together toward a solution to the nation's fiscal problems.

Congressional Republicans have expressed strong opposition to raising taxes to reduce the deficit, instead, pushing for larger spending cuts during the latest battle to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

"We do need to restore confidence and have substantive decisions made about our short- and long-term debt," he said.

The supercommittee’s recommendations must be reported out by Nov. 23 and voted up or down in the House and Senate by Dec. 23.

Failure by the panel or Congress to move forward will trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts in 2013.

Members of the committee include Senate Republicans Pat Toomey, Rob Portman and Jon Kyl. Besides Camp, Speaker John Boehner tapped House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton and Jeb Hensarling, the panel's co-chairman.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) named Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry and Senate Veterans Affairs Chairwoman Patty Murray, also a co-chairwoman.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) named her picks on Thursday — James Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat who has been on the front lines of the party's push for job-creating legislation, particularly in low-income communities; Xavier Becerra, the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, who has been the party's loudest advocate for shoring up the Social Security program without eroding any benefits; and Chris Van Hollen, ranking member on the House Budget Committee and former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Van Hollen and Clyburn were participants in the failed bipartisan debt-ceiling discussions led earlier in the year by Vice President Biden.

All three are either current or former members of Pelosi's leadership team who are seen as close to the former Speaker.