Top GOP lawmakers not fans of reported budget proposal

The Wall Street Journal has reported that President Obama’s budget will call for more than doubling the amount of wages that a company must pay unemployment taxes on, boosting that figure to $15,000. The current $7,000 figure dates back to 1983. 

On Tuesday, the top Republicans on both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee threw cold water on that idea, with Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) basically calling the idea dead on arrival. 

“We need to reform our unemployment programs, but any plan that relies on more than doubling the tax base and then continuing to raise payroll taxes in perpetuity isn’t going anywhere in the House,” Camp, the Ways and Means chairman, said in a statement. “Employers are demanding reforms to the unemployment program, not higher taxes on job creation.” 

For his part, Hatch, the ranking member on Finance, said that he hoped what he was reading turned out to be untrue – and, if not, that the administration would reconsider.

“This tax increase out of the White House builds on the flawed assumption that government knows best,” Hatch said in a statement. “In fact, the administration’s so-called cure to our high unemployment rate could actually make things worse.”

The Journal reported that the plan – which was reported on roughly the same time the president addressed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – would be scheduled to take effect in 2014 and would seem to offer states “a more politically palatable” way to collect extra revenue.