August Deficit Numbers and Potential Democrat Resistence To Tax increases

Every American owes $50,900 of the national debt.

Today in Washington, D.C. - Sept 18, 2012
The Senate is not in session today and will return for legislative business on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Senate will vote on a motion to waive the Budget Act with respect to the Murray substitute amendment to S. 3457, the Veterans Jobs Corps bill. If the motion to waive is agreed to, the Senate will vote on cloture (to cut off debate) on the Murray substitute amendment and then adoption of that amendment if cloture is invoked.  Later Wednesday, the Senate will vote on cloture on the motion to proceed (i.e. whether to take up) H.J. Res. 117, the House-passed six-month continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government.

The House reconvened at Noon and within 3 minutes recessed until Noon on Wednesda.  The Houses planned floor schedule for the remainder of the week is as follows:
WEDNESDAY:
HR 6060 — Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Extension Act
HR 5987 — A bill to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park
HR 1461 — Mescalero Apache Tribe Leasing Authorization Act
HR 3319 — A bill to allow the Pascua Yaqui Tribe to determine the tribe membership requirements.
HR 6324 — Cutting Federal Unnecessary and Expensive Leasing (Cutting FUEL) Act of 2012
HR 4158 — A bill to confirm ownership rights for certain U.S. astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions.
HR 6375 — VA Major Construction Authorization and Expiring Authorities Extension Act
HR 5948 — Veterans Fiduciary Reform Act
HR 3099 — A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for taxpayers to make donations to pay down the national debt on their income tax form
HR 5044 — Andrew P. Carpenter Tax Act
HR 2827 — A bill to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to regulation of municipal advisors
HR 6361 — Vulnerable Veterans Housing Reform Act
HR 2903 — FEMA reauthorization
HR 3110 — Grape Region Accelerated Production and Efficiency Act
HR 6368 — Boarder security
HR 5912 — A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ban the use of public funds for political party conventions, and toreturn previously distributed funds for deficit reduction.
HR 6296 — Disaster Loan Fairness Act
HR 5910 — Global Investment in American Jobs Act
HR 4212 — Addressing contaminated drywall
HR 4124 — Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act
HR 6163 — National Pediatric Research Network Act
HR 6118 — Taking Essential Steps for Testing Act
HR 3783 — Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act
H Res 526 — A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives with respect toward the establishment of a more peaceful and democratic Georgian Republic.
HR 733— Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act

THURSDAY: H J Res 118 — A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the rule submitted by the Office of Family Assistance of the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services with respect to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

FRIDAY: HR 3409 — Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act

Public Notice details August Deficit Numbers

• The Treasury Department recently released the Monthly Treasury Statement showing the U.S. ran a deficit of $191 billion last month. 
• This month’s statement pushes the country’s annual deficit past $1 trillion, the fourth year in a row our deficit has surpassed $1 trillion.
• Hardworking taxpayers across the country are cutting back as Washington continues to spend. This is simply unacceptable and unsustainable.
• We cannot continue to spend at this rate. Families across the country know you can’t keep spending more than you take in. This is the cardinal rule of responsible budgeting.
• Has Washington made sacrifices? The government keeps spending while the rest of us – families and Main Street businesses – are still learning to do more with less.
• Some have said tax increases must be part of any plan to reduce the deficit. This ignores the root cause of our fiscal imbalance. It is simply the wrong approach. We have an overspending problem, not an under-taxing problem
• Washington must make spending cuts now.  Lawmakers continue to put their political careers ahead of hardworking taxpayers, refusing to make the hard choices to put our economy back on the road to recovery.

Politico reports today, “President Barack Obama has made his tax position abundantly clear: Let the tax rates for the wealthiest Americans expire at year’s end. But on Capitol Hill, some in his own party are ready to make a deal. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois is floating a six-month extension of current rates combined with budget cuts so lawmakers have time to reach a grand bargain deal early next year.”

As Politico points out, this potential openness to compromise puts these congressional Democrats at odds with President Obama’s pledge to raise taxes. “The Democrats’ openness to extend tax cuts for upper-income Americans shows how legislative reality on Capitol Hill can clash with the presidential campaign, where Obama has attacked Mitt Romney for seeking more tax breaks for individuals earning more than $200,000 and families with income above $250,000. . . . The White House is adamantly opposed to any extension of the current tax rates for families who make more than $250,000 annually.”

Yet some Democrats are indicating a new openness to potentially breaking with the White House to avoid the fiscal cliff coming in January. “[I]n interviews with POLITICO, some liberals and moderate Democrats appear open to cutting a deal that includes a six-month extension of all the income tax rates . . . . ‘In the end, we’re probably going to have to do something like that,’ Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor said. . . . Some of the latest chatter was spurred by Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, who has floated the idea of delaying the so-called fiscal cliff by six months, including the fight over the Bush-era tax cuts, the automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic programs and an increased national debt ceiling.”

Recall that President Obama once said that raising taxes in 2010 “would have been a blow to our economy,” yet economic growth is weaker now than when he signed an extension of all the tax rates. At the time, 40 Senate Democrats voted to extend all those rates.

And yet the president remains adamant on his demands to raise taxes. Senate Mitch McConnell said earlier this summer, “After three and a half years of more government, more debt, more spending, more taxes, more regulations, [President Obama] demanded more. [T]he President issued an ultimatum: raise taxes on about a million business owners to fund more government, and I won’t raise taxes on the rest of you. That was his considered response to this crisis. . . . The sad truth is, the President isn’t just ignoring the economic problems we face, he’s exacerbating them. And he’s running us headlong into the cliff that’s fast approaching in January. . . . No one should see an income tax hike next year—not families, not small businesses, no one. We should extend all the income tax rates while we make progress on fundamental tax reform. It’s time to put the failed policies of the past three and half years aside and try something else.”

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