After the rejection of House Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” plan to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kans., said there’s no way he’ll ever agree to raise taxes, no matter how many spending cuts are agreed upon.
“I’m not going to vote to put people out of work and that’s what these tax increases do,” Huelskamp said Friday on Morning Joe. “I’m not going to put aside the fact that this tax increase would put anywhere from 200,000 to 700,000 Americans out of work.”
Huelskamp said he would never vote for tax increases, even for millionaires, because he believes it will hurt jobs.
An independent Congressional report that found raising taxes had little effect on job growth was withdrawn after Republicans protested earlier this year.
Huelscamp said he believes the problem to entirely be a spending problem and not a tax problem.
“Taxes doesn’t solve the crisis at all, that’s the misleading statement that all these sides are making,” he said.
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and economic analyst Steve Rattner asked repeatedly whether the representative would compromise for the sake of democracy.
“Let’s get to the practical realities of life; we have divided government,” Rattner said “How do you get anything done without both sides willing to compromise?”
Huelskamp dismissed the need for compromise, saying that, as was the case two years ago, he expects the president will cave.
A CNN poll released Thursday found that 53% of Americans believe that the GOP is too extreme in its views. “I’m prepared to keep working for another ten days,” he said. “Instead of going behind closed doors as is the instinct in Washington, let’s do something public—we can get this done! He continued: “We don’t have to raise taxes on anybody,but what we know we have to do is actually focus on the problem? Washington is trying to convince use that they’re not taxing us enough, when everybody know that $1.3 trillion deficit is not a taxing problem.” “If you’ve seen what happened over the last 300 years, we live in a divided government and there are going to be tax increases and if you do nothing there will be tax increases on January the 1st” Scarborough countered. “Wouldn’t you rather shape it?” “That’s a great question for Dec. 31st, and that may happen, but where are the spending reductions?”
Jane Timm Recommended
