Roskam
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POLITICO VIDEO: Roskam: We won't Bend On Taxes
“It strikes me that there is a great deal of ambiguity on the part of those who want to raise taxes and a great deal of clarity on the part of those who say we don’t want to raise taxes,” said Roskam, an influential member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

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Washington, Nov 16 -





By: Jeanne Cummings

President Barack Obama is hoping to get a bipartisan road map for managing the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in January.

But if he’s looking for compromise from Republicans, he isn’t going to get it.

That’s the message Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) delivered in an interview with POLITICO for its “Taxing America” video series.

“It strikes me that there is a great deal of ambiguity on the part of those who want to raise taxes and a great deal of clarity on the part of those who say we don’t want to raise taxes,” said Roskam, an influential member of the House Ways and Means Committee. 




In the course of the interview, Roskam also shot down key compromise proposals being floated by Democrats on Capitol Hill.

A temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts — even if it includes all tax brackets — is unacceptable because it would perpetuate uncertainty in the business community that is preventing job growth today, he said.

A plan to extend the tax breaks for those earning less than $1 million and eliminate them for those making more than that also is a no-go, he said, because it will still affect some businesses. “You raise their taxes, they are going to do less when it comes to hiring,” he said.

Roskam, who served alongside and co-sponsored legislation with Obama in the Illinois state Senate, acknowledged that it was a “fair question” to ask whether Republicans will compromise on anything in the next two years if they hold the partisan line on the first big post-election vote in Congress.

He cited free-trade agreements as one area where the White House and Republicans could find common ground. That issue, however, will very likely remain a contentious one in the Senate, where many Democrats — including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — are now more beholden than ever to the labor unions that helped them during the midterms.

“I think what the public is saying through their voice on Nov. 2 is we expect clarity, we expect fiscal discipline and we expect you to be adults and to go in and try to solve some of these national problems,” said Roskam.

“So I would suggest that it is in nobody’s interest to say, you know, ‘We don’t have skin in this game,’” he added.

However, when it comes to the issue of taxes, Roskam said his colleagues are convinced that their November victories sent a clear signal that voters want government to stop spending and aren’t interested in sending it more money.

“Before my constituents will be interested in any conversation about raising taxes, they want to see that every spending cut that is reasonable has been exhausted,” said Roskam, adding that today “you can’t make that argument with a straight face.”

Before the midterm elections shifted control of the House from the Democrats to the Republicans, Democrats had planned to make the Bush tax cuts for middle-class families permanent and eliminate those for the wealthy.

But in the run-up to the election, moderate Democrats and some liberals from wealthy districts had already begun to argue against elimination of the tax cuts for the wealthy because it could create a drag on the economy.

Now, the Democrats are even more divided as moderates fearful of the 2012 election are digging in their heels and the White House is infuriating its liberal base by signaling that it will consider a temporary extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy.

Roskam said the Democratic infighting demonstrates “the degree to which the majority has classically mishandled this process” and given supporters of the Bush tax cuts momentum going into the negotiations.

If the goal is to help boost job creation, said Roskam, “we need real clarity. The issue has been largely discussed, and the country largely answered that question in the election.”

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