Boehner fires back at Biden on tax cuts

Vice President Biden’s position on the expiring Bush tax cuts will stunt job growth and make it harder to balance the budget, House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said Thursday.

Boehner, who has openly sparred with the White House over the economy for weeks, responded to Biden’s comments that Republican arguments for extending all the Bush tax cuts are “a bunch of malarkey.”

{mosads}“With all due respect to the vice president, Americans know we won’t solve the deficit until we cut spending and have real economic growth, and we won’t have real economic growth if we raise taxes on small businesses,” Boehner said in a release. “As a former small business owner myself, I can tell you that’s going to destroy more jobs and make it harder to balance the budget, not easier. To get our economy moving again, we need to rein in government spending, stop the tax hike, and end the uncertainty for our nation’s small businesses so they can get back to creating jobs.”

The tax cuts expire at the end of the year, and Republican and Democratic leaders are arguing over whether to extend them.

The issue has fueled debate over August recess, with unemployment lingering at 9.5 percent and members talking to constituents in their districts who are unsatisfied with state of the economy.

This week, the White House and Democrats clashed with Boehner over a speech he gave laying out the GOP economic platform, in which he also called for the firing of top Obama administration economic officials.

The White House prefers that the cuts be extended for those not in the top income brackets, families making less than $250,000 per year and individuals making less than $200,000 per year.

GOP lawmakers want all the cuts extended, arguing that eliminating tax breaks in the midst of a struggling economic recovery would stunt job growth. Some centrist Democrats, especially those facing tough midterm contests, have supported that position.

Biden, at an economic forum on Thursday threw cold water on that argument, saying that continuing all the tax breaks would be fiscally reckless. He also said the “super rich” don’t need the cut. 

“They’ve already got disposable income,” Biden said of the “super rich.”

“They’re spending all they’re going to spend anyway.”

Article was originally posted on Blog Briefing Room.