Bennet favors expiration of Bush tax breaks for wealthy

“I’m the father of three little girls that are 10, 9 and 6, and I can tell you this: A fiscal policy that relies on cutting taxes for the very wealthiest of Americans, the people that needed tax cuts the least, borrowing the money from the Chinese and forcing our kids to pay for those taxes is not a fiscal policy that the people of Colorado are interesting in pursuing,” he told “Good Morning America.” “I don’t think we can afford it.”

Bennet on Tuesday beat challenger Andrew Romanoff with 54.2 percent of the vote and will face Republican Ken Buck in November. Buck has strong ties to the Tea Party, a group founded on the belief that the government taxes too much.

The Senate is expected to take the lead in deciding the fate of the Bush tax cuts and is expected to begin debating the issue in earnest when lawmakers return from the August break. 

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) told The Hill on Tuesday that the Senate is looking at temporarily extending all the Bush tax cuts, possibly for one year. 

But there are some whispers that lawmakers might tweak the thresholds touted by President Obama on who will receive a tax increase next year. 

During his presidential campaign, Obama said individuals earning above $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000 would see their tax rates increase after the Bush tax breaks expire in 2011. 

Making good on that promise has some Democratic lawmakers nervous about their reelection bids, and some argue that increasing the thresholds might allay some of that concern without extending tax relief to the very rich.