House Republicans make cross-party pitch to embolden debt supercommittee
Thursday, November 03, 2011
House Republicans make cross-party pitch to embolden debt
'supercommittee'
By: Rosalind S. Helderman and Lori Montgomery,
Washington Post
A group of 40 House Republicans for the first time Wednesday
encouraged Congress's
deficit reduction committee to explore new revenue as part of a
broad deal that would make a major dent in the nation's debt,
joining 60 Democrats in a rare bipartisan effort to urge the
"supercommittee" to reach a big deal that could also include
entitlement cuts.
The letter they sent represents a rare cross-party effort for
the rancorous House, and its organizers said they hoped it would
help nudge the 12-member panel to reach a deal that would far
exceed the committee's $1.5 trillion mandate.
Among those who signed were several dozen Republicans who had
previously signed a pledge promising they would not support a net
tax increase. Among the Democratic signers were some of the House's
most liberal members who have opposed entitlement cuts.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.), chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus, said the effort was to help Congress avoid being
"cornered by the paralysis of small potatoes." Rep. Cynthia M.
Lummis (R-Wyo.), a member of the conservative Republican Study
Group, said the intent was to compel the supercommittee to craft a
strategy "so big, so comprehensive, so inclusive that any great
statesman or stateswoman could hardly resist voting for it."
"To succeed, all options for mandatory and discretionary
spending and revenues must be on the table," the group wrote,
adding that previous deficit reduction task forces have suggested a
goal of reducing the debt by $4 trillion over the next decade. "Our
country needs our honest, bipartisan judgment and our political
courage."
The letter comes as pessimism that the supercommittee can find
agreement by a Nov. 23 deadline is running high on Capitol
Hill.
Aides to both sides have said the six House members and six
Senators who serve on the panel are stuck on the same issue that
has divided previous efforts to cut the deficit - Democrats want
Republicans to accept sizable new revenue generation before
agreeing to significant entitlement cuts and Republicans do not
want to back a tax increase.
Republican supercommittee members spent Wednesday shuttling
between leadership offices, in discussions over potential revisions
to an offer they sent to Democrats last week, aides said.
That proposal, which would slice $2.2 trillion from future
borrowing over the next decade, included less than $100 billion in
actual tax increases. Those increases would come entirely through
revising the index used to measure inflation. Republicans argue
they would get another $200 billion through encouraging economic
growth.
Part of Wednesday's discussion appeared to be whether to boost
the tax offer by proposing to end some corporate subsidies such as
tax breaks for oil and gas companies.
The bipartisan letter sent Wednesday included no specifics - it
did not, for instance, commit its signers to supporting a tax
increase, as many Democrats have urged, but merely urged that the
committee consider revenue.
Still, Republicans said the number of members of their party who
signed was significant, given fear among many members it would
nevertheless be interpreted as endorsing taxes, particularly by
Grover Norquist, the Americans for Tax Reform president. Norquist
urges elected officials to sign a pledge that they will not raise
taxes.
Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio) said if he had a nickel for
every one of the Republicans who said they supported the letter's
goal but feared how Norquist would react, "I'd be rich and retired,
and we'd have 200 signatures on the letter."
LaTourette, a close ally of House Speaker John A. Boehner
(R-Ohio), said the new coalition was a sign that Republican leaders
are now willing to unite with Democrats on a grand bargain that
would address both revenue and entitlements, even if it meant
leaving behind some of the GOP's hardline voices.
Norquist played down the letter's significance, noting it merely
asked the committee to consider all options.
"Consider anything," he said. "Just don't vote for a tax
increase."
And several Republicans who signed the letter were careful to
note they were not endorsing a net tax increase - but rather a
broad rewrite of the tax code that might close loopholes and lower
rates, while still producing more government revenue.
The complex math of tax reform was highlighted Wednesday in a
report from congressional tax analysts that cast doubt on a
Republican plan to slash the corporate tax rate to 25 percent. The
nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation concluded that eliminating
existing loopholes and tax breaks would generate only enough cash
to cut the rate to 28 percent.
The report was requested by Rep. Sander M. Levin (Mich.), the
senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Levin noted in an interview that even getting the corporate rate
down to 28 percent would require wiping out many critical tax
incentives for manufacturers and the energy sector, a move many
lawmakers may not want to take.
"If there's a discussion of tax reform, it needs to be
informed," Levin said, "not just a stab in the dark."