Van Hollen: Tax revenue has to be on table in debt talks

Van Hollen’s comments — which come as optimism appears to be growing about the Biden-led talks — seemed to also underscore the difficulty the two parties might have in reaching a long-term agreement.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the chief architect of the House GOP’s 2012 budget, reiterated Thursday that tax increases were “off the table” for Republicans. 

Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, also said that actual spending cuts — and not just a spending cap — would be necessary for the GOP to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which the Treasury Department now says absolutely has to be done by early August.

For their part, two other Democrats involved in the Biden talks — Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the Finance Committee chairman, and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 House Democrat — have expressed support for a “debt failsafe trigger,” which would mandate spending cuts or tax increases in the future if the debt’s percentage of gross domestic product was not going down. 

With all that in mind, Van Hollen was left with at least some optimism going into Thursday’s talks, saying that he thought both sides knew that they had to come together on some sort of plan. 

“What that plan is, how broad it is, those are all issues that will be discussed. But I think there’s a sense among the parties coming together that it’s important to get something done,” the Maryland Democrat told Bloomberg. 

He reserved some criticism from the House budget largely crafted by Ryan, which proposes major changes to both Medicare and Medicaid. 

“I think now the public has gotten a very a good look at the House Republican plan, they do not like what they see,” Van Hollen said.