With America on the precipice of a so-called fiscal cliff, five Orange County congressmen must balance their earlier pledges not to raise taxes against the possibility that refusing to cut a deal with the White House will let Bush-era tax cuts expire.
President Barack Obama has made tax increases on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans a cornerstone of his proposal to cut the deficit. House Republicans have slammed the president’s plan, arguing it relies too heavily on tax increases instead of spending cuts to chip away at the debt.
This week, House Speaker John A. Boehner countered with a proposal to raise taxes on people who make $1 million a year as opposed to Obama’s plan to raise taxes on households that earn more than $250,000.
If the two sides can’t reach a deal by the end of the year, most Americans will experience tax increases, a scenario that could shove the country back into a recession, experts warn. The “fiscal cliff”—a term popularized by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke—refers to the combination of Bush-era tax cuts expiring and across-the-board federal spending cuts set to take effect if no deal is reached.
Of the five congressmen representing Orange County Patch cities, all are Republicans who signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to raise taxes. When pressed, none would specify if there were any circumstances in which they would go against their pledge and raise taxes on the wealthy to avert expiration of the Bush tax cuts for everyone else.
“We need to provide certainty to the economy and address our looming debt crisis, the sooner the better," Congressman Ed Royce, who represents Los Alamitos, said via email. "That means bringing in additional revenues through the closing of tax loopholes; I’ve always advocated for that. For example, I chaired our bipartisan Pork Busters Coalition to go after corporate welfare and close loopholes in the tax code and in the federal budget. We are drowning in debt primarily because of overspending in Washington and that has to be the major part of the solution. A compromise will rest on ironclad verification that the spending cuts are real.”
Rep. John Campbell, who represents Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach and Lake Forest through the end of the year, told Fox News his bottom line was entitlement reform to significantly reduce the deficit.
“It’s not about taxes," he told Fox. "It’s the deficit that will bring this country down. We are not talking about tax increases. I don’t think the tax increases are a good idea. I don’t think they’ll reduce the deficit much. But my … Democratic colleagues disagree. If that is what they want, fine. But in the end, we have to put together something that will make a significant reduction in this deficit. We can’t do that without impacting the major entitlements.”
Loopholes will be the focus of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who represents Fountain Valley and Seal Beach until 2013, then will represent the new 48th District stretching from Seal Beach to Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo.
“Mr. Rohrabacher is committed to avoiding the fiscal cliff by supporting a deal that drastically cuts spending in order to get our ever-increasing debt under control," spokeswoman Tara Olivia Setmayer said. "As part of that deal, he is open to considering new revenues—not by raising tax rates, but by reforming the tax code [and eliminating] certain preferences. But any deal must contain more in spending cuts than new revenue. Our constituents have worked hard for their money and are not supportive of having their rates raised simply so that Washington bureaucrats can waste it on bloated government programs.”
Congressman Darrell Issa, who will represent Dana Point, San Clemente, Coto De Caza, San Juan Capistrano and Ladera Ranch in the new 49th District, has come out against the President’s current proposal.
“The tax cut passed in 2001, which lowered taxes for all Americans, was written with an expiration date," Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said. "Tax rates are set to rise to previous levels unless Congress and the president reach a comprehensive agreement on spending cuts and an alternative approach to tax issues. Congressman Issa would not support the plan President Obama has outlined. Rep. Issa would only lend his support to a fair approach making real and meaningful reductions in anticipated spending and a tax policy that does not approach small businesses and job creators as targets to pay for expanded government spending.”
Rep. Gary Miller, who currently represents Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, did not return calls regarding his stance on taxes and the fiscal cliff.
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS
Do you want your congressman to hold firm to the no-tax-increase pledge or be open to the possibility of a tax increase as part of a package to avert the fiscal cliff?
-- Patch reporter Ken Stone contributed to this report.
There is the long-term debt, which given by the interest rates being as low as they are, is really long term. People find US debt to be among the safest in the world. There is then this cliff which in this recovering economy will try to cut debt too fast. The CBO projects it'll plunge us back into a recession, but it also notes that it'll slow debt increases. The problem with a recession is that it cuts growth, which then means we do not generate enough towards the long term debt any time soon. If nothing gets done, marginal tax rates go up for everyone, which means everyone pays more and *the pledge is broken*. If we renew them for the 2nd bracket only, then everyone pays a little less *including the top earners* than if all brackets were to expire. So the options are 1 Everyone's taxes go up 2 No one's taxes go up 3 98% see no increases, and the other 2% get a cut up to 200/250K, and will see their taxes go up after that. Still, a better deal than 1. Today's failed vote (Plan B) confirms that Republicans will risk 1 to get 2 and call Obama's bluff on the one thing he has a mandate. Perhaps we should go over the cliff, because the unpaid wars need to be paid for. The sequestration will finally cut the bloated defense budget, and will cut something from domestic spending. Win-win-sacrifice... Remember, Boehner after the debt ceiling deal said that he got 98% of what he wanted.
Surely you jest, Joanna. Oaths mean nothing to these people. It's an inconvenient formality. And pledges mean nothing either. Pledges are made to be broken. We've seen that time and time again with politicians. They can take your vote and money based on promises made that are later broken. That, of course, is the definition of 'fraud'. Fraud that is immune from prosecution under the law. But if a businessman made fraudulent promises to customers about the capability of his product - he would have hell to pay in our court system. Two sets of laws, Joanna. One for us. One for them. Accept it. Be aware of it. But accept it. For that is what America has evolved into. More truth.
Liars all except maybe Dana Rohrabacher. Let's try the cliff. Obama will have that much more money to play with. So what if we pay more in taxes. The majority voted for him. just 4 more years
They will continue to boot the bucket until the laws of math comes into the room with a great big sledgehammer and puts a stop to all the insanity. They continue to talk about "taxes" while the phrase "cut spending" is void from their lexicon. Sooner or later they will pay. We will alll pay. It's going to get ugly. Just make sure that you have some sort of exit plan in place. Don't get sheared like all the other sheep and then sacrificed.
So who gets caught holding the bag? Your children? You grandchildren? In fact, I postulate that if you are 50 years old or younger there is a 95% possibility that you will get caught holding the bag. If I were a betting man, I would quadruple down on it. The math is not that hard to calculate unless you happen to be a government numbers cruncher.
Yeah, like $600K to $700K more. Then we're good. Oh, those job creators!!!! http://www.businessinsider.com/report-obama-tax-rate-threshold-400k-2012-12
Not all of us have drank the Fox noise and Rush Limbaugh koolAID. I doubt if anyone posting here is in the 0.01% of the richest people in the country. I suspect that the majority are middle-class. Yet, you're willing to risk everything to make sure the 0.01% get a tax cut while you get stuck with the bill. In the 50s, the top tax rate was 91% for those with the highest incomes and yet their wealth continued to grow. We had the strongest economy ever, created the middle-class, and ultimately sent man to the moon. Then the Republicans began their assault on science, education, teachers, veterans, the middle-class, unions, and the poor. Their goal is a two-class society -- the ultra-rich and the starving poor. No more 40 hour work weeks, no more paid vacations, no more health care, no more retirement pensions, no more public schools, and no more unions -- the organizations that got us those benefits in the first place My parents lived through the great depression. I doubt if many here experienced what it was like. I was born in the last years of the great depression, and I have a few memories from that era. By the end of the 50s my parents were able to own their own home, own a new car, and both parents didn't have to work. And, unlike today, they weren't in debt up to their elbows.
Fix the tax code. Return to the 1958 tax code of Republican Dwight D Eisenhower. Adjust all dollar figures in that code for inflation. Implement immediately. The fact of the mater is that the Chicago School and Milton Friedman were WRONG. Get over it. It didn't work. And continuing to double down on a failed fiscal policy in the hope that digging the hole twice as fast and twice as deep is going to somehow get you out of the hole you created in the first place isn't a policy, it's insanity. I really want to build an application that is attached to google maps so that when you get directions it tells you the number of bridges your path will take you over, the date they were built the "lifespan" of them and give you a calculated risk level for any one of them failing because we haven't fixed the infrastructure of this country. You want full employment? How about we tax at 1958 rates and use 50% of that increase to invest in rebuilding the infrastructure of this country before it starts to fail? Lot's of real jobs that are providing real service. Too bad the Congress is bought and paid for by special interest of the .1% (and not to let Obama off the hook, he is too! Just like McCain and/or Romney are.)
For over 80% of the American public, nothing. So, the best course of action is to just do nothing and let Jan 2 be the start of the negotiations.
Unless you make over $250K in joint income (over $150K in single income) from actual labour (not investments), then the odds are that you won't feel a damn thing if Obama does nothing and the Bush tax cuts expire. The only reason that this is a big issue is that most of the talking heads on your TV WILL be affected by letting the taxes expire. And they don't want to lose their benefits. There is no fiscal cliff for the country, and for almost 80% of the country the elimination of the Bush Tax cuts will not have any effect.
Taxes are down more than spending. Returning to the 1999 tax rates will not fill the hole, but it will help stop the bleeding. Returning to 1958 tax rates will start to fill the hole. Those are the facts.
Have you ever watched Chris Matthews or Piers Morgan on TV, Joanna!!! hah! Talk about kool-aid dealers! hah! They are white poverty pimps and proponents of totalitarian government control! Both should wear a hammer and sickle on one lapel and lightning bolts on the other!! hah! Look what is happened to California, Joanna. The Sacramento liberal hacks are scaring away the big money. All you will have left are illegal aliens and government workers here. Good luck with that, dear! Who is going to be left to pay the taxes? The State is BANKRUPTED. The State fell $600M below budget projections just for November. hah! Your liberal democrats did that to us, Joanna! hah! Point your finger inward instead of outward next time you criticize, ok? hah! This is not 1930 anymore, Joanna. We are not able to create another world war to pull us out of our economic doldrums. And the other emerging economies like China are outproducing us and their economies are going to surpass ours. We are a dying nation due to the policies of the hand-wringing liberal democrats. They are destroying us. And it appears that you are applauding them!
These three letters are crucial in order to pay for the safety hammock because the 99% belief system cannot say the words MC tax. That would be sacraligious to utter those words. Do the math, do the math, do the math.