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Boehner declares tax hikes ‘off the table,’ drawing White House rebuke

By Paul Kane, Lori Montgomery and William Branigin,May 09, 2011

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) addresses the Economic Club of New… (Spencer Platt/GETTY IMAGES )

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) declared Tuesday that raising taxes is “off the table” in negotiations on deficit reduction, prompting a White House complaint that such “maximalist positions” do not lead to compromise.

The White House also denounced Boehner’s demand a day earlier for more than $2 trillion in spending cuts in exchange for Republican agreement to raise the U.S. debt limit. Press secretary Jay Carney likened the demand to a hostage-taking, telling reporters, “It is folly to hold hostage the vote to raise the debt ceiling . . . to any other piece of legislation.” He said increasing the debt limit is intended to prevent the United States “from defaulting on its obligations.”

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show ahead of a new round of deficit-reduction talks hosted by Vice President Biden, Boehner appeared to rule out any compromise with Democrats on allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans to expire or ending tax breaks worth billions of dollars to large oil companies making record profits. Republicans define both steps as tax increases.

“What some are suggesting is we take the money from people who would invest in our economy and create jobs and give it to the government,” Boehner said. “The fact is you can’t tax the people we expect to invest in the economy and create jobs. Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem. Washington has a spending problem.”

Asked whether “raising taxes is a nonstarter,” Boehner replied: “It’s off the table. Everything else is on the table.”

That brought a rebuke from Carney, who complained that the GOP’s “position that eliminating the Medicare program as we know it remains on the table, but dealing with tax expenditures is off the table.” Speaking to reporters accompanying President Obama on a trip to Texas aboard Air Force One, Carney added: “Maximalist positions do not produce compromise.”

Carney said linking an upcoming vote on the debt ceiling to massive spending cuts “remains extremely unwise in our view,” and he cited Boehner’s own words on the potentially catastrophic results of failing to raise the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow. This would mean “financial disaster not only for our country but for the worldwide economy,” he quoted Boehner as saying Jan. 30. “You can’t create jobs if you default on the federal debt.” Carney said that “we couldn’t agree more.”

The skirmishing came a day after Boehner defined the GOP’s terms for raising the legal limit on government borrowing, demanding that Obama reduce spending by more than $2 trillion in exchange for an increase big enough to cover the nation’s bills through the end of next year.

Delivering a sermon on fiscal austerity to a Wall Street crowd clamoring for compromise on the debt limit, Boehner firmly rejected any effort to raise taxes. He also called on Democrats to engage in “honest conversations about how best to preserve Medicare,” signaling that House Republicans remain committed to restructuring at least some portions of the program.

And for the first time, he signaled that Republicans would come to the negotiating table with the expectation that the White House and Senate Democrats be prepared to discuss major reductions in federal spending — and enact them immediately. That was a sharp shift from Republicans who just last week talked of finding “commonality” on less-ambitious measures.

“Without significant spending cuts and changes in the way we spend the American people’s money, there will be no increase in the debt limit. And the cuts should be greater than the accompanying increase in the debt limit that the president is given,” Boehner said in an address to the Economic Club of New York at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. “We’re not talking about billions here. We should be talking about cuts in trillions if we’re serious about addressing America’s fiscal problems.”

The extent of Boehner’s demands was unclear. Aides declined to say over what period the cuts would have to take effect, saying only that they could be achieved on a time frame longer than the life of the debt-limit increase.

Boehner’s terms referred specifically to discussions about raising the debt limit. His speech suggests that Republicans will try to extract as much as they can from that debate, before the parties move on to broader discussions about the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. Democrats had indicated a desire to limit the scope of debt-ceiling talks.