Using comments by former President Bill Clinton as a political gift, Republican leaders stepped up their calls to extend George W. Bush-era tax rates for a year at least.
One by one, senior congressional Republicans stepped before cameras on Wednesday morning to trumpet Clinton’s momentary support for extending the full slate of current tax rates, which contrasts with President Obama’s position to keep the rates in place only for the middle class.
“Extending all the current tax rates for at least a year is really important if we’re going to help job creators and give them more confidence to put Americans back to work,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said after a closed-door conference meeting. “Even Bill Clinton came out for it — before he was against it.”
Clinton, in an interview on CNBC, said he had “no problem” with extending all of the tax cuts temporarily to avoid the year-end “fiscal cliff” that economists warn could slow the economy or even cause another recession. A spokesman for the former president later clarified that he “does not believe the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should be extended again.”
Read more on The Hill's On The Money blog.
