(Host) Congressman Peter Welch says he may find himself opposing President Obama over an issue in the upcoming lame duck Congressional session.
The President is considering a compromise proposal to extend the so called Bush tax cuts, on a temporary basis, to all individuals – but Welch says that plan is a big mistake.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports.
(Kinzel) Next week, Congress will return to Washington in a lame duck session and one of the top issues under consideration is an extension of tax cuts that were implemented in the first term of former President George W. Bush.
Those tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year and Congress is engaged in a highly partisan debate over a possible extension of the cuts.
Many Democrats support extending the cuts but only for families with incomes below $250,000 a year while many Republicans want to extend the tax cuts for all individuals.
In the aftermath of an election that saw the Democrats lose more than 60 seats in the U.S. House, President Obama says he’s willing to work with GOP leaders and consider a plan to temporarily extend the tax cuts for all people.
Congressman Welch says he can’t support the President’s approach.
(Welch) "So why do we borrow money in order to fund a $700 billion tax cut for the very well off ? It makes no sense to me economically it won’t help the economy but it will aggravate the deficit and since it didn’t make sense to me before the election it doesn’t make sense to me after the election so I would urge the Obama Administration to hold firm on this."
(Kinzel) Welch says he generally applauds the President’s effort to reach out to the Republicans but he thinks this is the wrong issue to compromise on.
(Welch) "I think it is a mistake on the tax cuts I do I think we can progress but we’ve got to stick to the real issue and if the result of the compromise is that you’re adding $700 billion to the deficit in my view that’s a bad compromise because it doesn’t benefit the economy."
(Kinzel) Welch says he won’t be surprised if the vote on the tax cuts gets postponed until January because of disagreements among Congressional Democrats, Republicans and the White House:
(Welch) "I think there’s a very good chance that there will be no action on the tax cuts in the lame duck session I mean this election obviously the American people sent a message and there’s a new majority and they’re going to have an opportunity to act and even if we did pass some form of tax cut in the lame duck session the new Republican majority in January would be able to reverse that."
(Kinzel) The lame duck session will also consider a supplemental budget bill to maintain the operations of the federal government for the next few months.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.