Republican Congressman Tom Price, R-Ga, said Thursday that President Obama was willing to play politics to take the nation to the brink of the fiscal cliff.
“What the president’s holding out for is a non-solution,” Price said on Jansing & Co. ” The tax increases that the president wants on the top 2% will run this government not for 8 years, or 8 months, or 8 weeks, but run this government for 8 days. This means it is not a solution.”
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told CNBC the administration was fully prepared to go over the fiscal cliff if Republicans wouldn’t agree to raising tax rates for the wealthy. The Secretary also said progress is being made on negotiations, and he believes a framework is coming together.
Several Republicans have hinted they’d agree to raising rates on the wealthy now, as part of a bigger plan later. Outgoing Ohio Republican Steve LaTourette says he supports giving the President what he wants, but only as part of a $4 or $5 trillion package.
When asked if he would be on board with that, Price said,”Well it all depends on what the whole package is, but what we are interested in are real solutions.”
He added, “if in fact there were fundamental, significant reform of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security so that we in fact save and strengthen and secure those programs just like we did in our budget…then that’s something that we would talk about and very seriously consider.”
Meanwhile, President Obama was keeping up his fiscal cliff public relations campaign. He planned to head to Virginia Thursday afternoon to meet with a family who took part in the administration’s #My2K initiative. More than 260,000 people have tweeted their story of how paying more than $2000 in taxes a year would affect them, according to the White House.
“The problem with the president’s proposal is that it’s not a real solution, it’s all politics,” Price said.
Tracy Mitchell