President
Barack Obama will not extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest
Americans, even temporarily, past their Jan. 1 expiration, the White
House said Wednesday as it coped with the fallout from comments by
former President Bill Clinton.
"We should not extend—and he will
not extend—the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of the
American people. It's bad policy, it's bad for the economy, it's bad for
our fiscal picture," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air
Force One.
Asked whether that applied to a
short-term extension, Carney did not hide his irritation: "He will
not—could I be more clear?—he will not support extension of the
upper-income Bush tax cuts."
Carney's forceful declaration came after delighted Republicans seized on Clinton's remarks in an interview with CNBC
in which he seemed to suggest that the Bush tax cuts, set to expire at
year's end, be temporarily extended, which would be a sharp break from
Obama. "They will probably have to put everything off until early next
year," Clinton told CNBC. "That's probably the best thing to do right
now. But the Republicans don't want to do that unless he agrees to
extend the tax cuts permanently, including for upper income people, and I
don't think the president should do that."
The White House spokesman also
sought to turn the tables on Republicans, asking whether they will
"force a tax hike on 98 percent of tax-paying Americans because they're
holding them hostage to tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans."
Carney also bristled when asked about Clinton's comment during the
CNBC interview that "there's a recession"—which is defined as two
quarters of negative economic growth. "You can cherry-pick the words
that he said," the spokesman said.But Clinton "also referred to the current expansion. We understand—you know, you work for a news service that does a lot of economic analysis—expansion means economic growth, it is the opposite of recession," Carney said.
The offices of Republican House
Speaker John Boehner and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, as well as the Republican National Committee, blasted those
ambiguous words to reporters, saying that Clinton was lining up behind
their position and breaking with the president.
A few hours later, Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna issued a statement on the interview meant to clarify the remarks.
"On extending the Bush tax cuts, as President Clinton has said many
times before, he supported extending all of the cuts in 2010 as part of
the budget agreement, but does not believe the tax cuts for the
wealthiest Americans should be extended again," McKenna said.
"In the interview, he simply said that he doubted that a long-term
agreement on spending cuts and revenues would be reached until after the
election," he said.
But Boehner on Wednesday used
Clinton's comments as a club to beat up Obama on the economy—and mocked
the former president in the process.
"Extending all of the current tax rates for at least a year is really
important if we're going to help job creators gain a little more
confidence and put Americans back to work. Even Bill Clinton came out
for it—before he was against it," Boehner told reporters.Carney pointed reporters back to McKenna's statement, which he said "made abundantly clear there is no daylight between President Clinton and President Obama."
The confrontation is sure to
continue in the Senate and House of Representatives. Democrats have
indicated they will push for a vote on extending only the lower-bracket
tax cuts. Republicans have signaled they plan to hold a vote on
extending all of the rates.
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