The White House is pressing Republicans to make a counteroffer to President Obama’s proposal to avert a collection of scheduled tax hikes and spending cuts that could cause a recession next year.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said House Republicans should lay out their plan if they find Obama’s offer of a $1.6 trillion tax hike unacceptable.
“If they have ideas that are different from ours ... we can't guess what they are,” Carney said. “They have to tell us.”
Carney also blasted a so-called “doomsday” plan as “entirely unacceptable,” even though the plan would do as the White House has demanded and extend middle-class tax rates while allowing rates on wealthier households to rise.
Under the plan, House Republicans would allow Democrats to pass a Senate bill that extends the Bush-era tax rates for incomes under $250,000 a year while raising taxes on incomes above that threshold. But the House GOP’s plan would not extend the debt ceiling or unemployment benefits, and it would not avoid $1.1 trillion in automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic budgets set to begin next year.
This would force the president back to the negotiating table early next year for additional talks in which the GOP could have more leverage.
Read more on The Hill's On the Money blog.
