On September 13, 2010, the Boston Globe published Middle class tax cuts gain support, by David Herszenhorn. (This story was written for the New York Times and picked up in the Boston Globe, see update below.)
The House Republican leader said yesterday that he was prepared to vote in favor of legislation that would let the Bush-era tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans if Democrats insisted on continuing the cuts only for families earning less than $250,000 a year.
Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,’’ Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio made clear that he supports continuing the lower tax rates at all income levels and said Democrats would be making a mistake by increasing taxes on anyone, given the weak economy.
But Boehner said that absent any other option, he would vote in favor of legislation proposed by President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other Democratic leaders who want to continue the lower rates only for Americans they regard as middle class. . . .
In recent days, Boehner has called for extending all the Bush tax cuts for two years and freezing government spending at 2008 levels. In addition to the lower marginal income tax rates, aides said Boehner would like to continue the moratorium on the federal estate tax, which is also due to expire Dec. 31.
The one-year elimination of the estate tax has allowed some extremely wealthy Americans to leave enormous inheritances without paying any federal tax. Republicans have long criticized the estate levy as double taxation because the assets were generally taxed as income when they were first earned.
YouTube video -- Boehner on Face the Nation: Freezing All Tax Rates Essential To Helping Economy, Creating Jobs:
Related articles:
- David S. Morgan, Boehner: I'll Drop Tax Cut for Rich If I Have To, CBS, Sept. 12, 2010.
- John Whitesides, UPDATE 3-Top US House Republican hints at tax compromise, Reuters, Sept. 12, 2010.
More on Rep. Boehner:
Update: Special thanks to reader, scarpy, who pointed outan error in my post: "Just a quick correction to your headline -- Herszenhorn wrote the piece for the NYTimes and the Globe picked it up."
The article appeared in the NY Times as House G.O.P. Leader Signals He’s Open to Obama Tax Cut. The article did not have the comment by the aides to Rep. Boehner: "In recent days, Mr. Boehner has called for extending all of the Bush tax cutsfor two years, which would cost more than $500 billion, and for freezing nonsecurity discretionary spending at 2008 levels, which some analysts say would require cuts of more than $100 billion."
The Boston Globe picked up Herszenhorn's article: Middle class tax cuts gain support. Here, the article contains the information that is pertinent to the federal estate tax: "In recent days, Boehner has called for extending all the Bush tax cuts for two years and freezing government spending at 2008 levels. In addition to the lower marginal income tax rates, aides said Boehner would like to continue the moratorium on the federal estate tax, which is also due to expire Dec. 31."
(I did a quick redline of the two versions (PDF) and there are other differences between the articles.)
