GOP Balks at Taxes to Finance Jobs Plan | North Carolina News

By CAROL E. LEE And JANET HOOK

The prospects for President Barack Obama?s $447 billion jobs plan grew dimmer Monday as he unveiled the fine print of how it would be paid for?primarily through tax increases that Republicans said would kill jobs, not create them.

Mr. Obama proposed limiting itemized deductions for Americans making $200,000 or more a year, ending tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jet owners, and cutting out a tax break for investment-fund managers. The White House says the tax changes would take effect in 2013 and estimates they would raise $467 billion in additional revenue over 10 years.

Enlarge Image

Reuters

President Obama holds a copy of the ?American Jobs Act? he will send up to Congress for passage while standing next to Vice President Biden in the Rose Garden Monday.

Republicans in Congress, who had been striking a more conciliatory tone about backing at least parts of the proposal the president unveiled last Thursday, disputed the White House contention that the plan would cause no additional job losses for the struggling economy.

?It would be fair to say this tax increase on job creators is the kind of proposal both parties have opposed in the past,? said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). ?We remain eager to work together on ways to support job growth, but this proposal doesn?t appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit.?

Mr. Obama made a new pitch for his plan at the White House Monday and has said he intends to campaign against Congress and Republicans in 2012 if they don?t pass the bill.

The Bill

Read the text of the American Jobs Act of 2011

View Document

?We?ve got to decide what our priorities are,? he said. ?Do we keep tax loopholes for oil companies, or do we put teachers back to work? Should we keep tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or should we invest in education and technology and infrastructure??

Despite Mr. Obama?s demand that Congress act on the legislation quickly, neither the jobs nor tax proposals are likely to be approved or take affect any time soon. Senate Democratic leaders are expected to bring the bill to a vote in the coming weeks, but it is not expected to pass.

More likely some of the proposals in the bill could be passed piecemeal or could be included in a broader deficit-reduction plan crafted by a congressional supercommittee charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years. Mr. Obama will submit his own deficit-cutting plan of at least $2 trillion over 10 years to the committee on Sept. 19, administration officials said. That plan will include budget cuts, including to programs such as Medicare, not just tax increases like the ones he?s proposing to pay for his jobs bill, administration officials said.

The congressional committee faces a Nov. 23 deadline to agree on which measures are to be include in the deficit-reduction package, which would be put to Congress for an up or down vote by Dec. 23.

From the outset, Republicans said Mr. Obama?s jobs bill?which comprises tax cuts for employers and employees and a raft of government spending measures, including funds to states to rehire teachers and first responders?was unlikely to pass intact, a point White House officials privately conceded. But GOP leaders had signaled in recent days that they may support an extension of a payroll-tax cut in 2012 and changes to help the long-term unemployed.

Despite the White House?s hope that Republicans would have a change of heart after their political standing decreased after the acrimonious debt ceiling debate this summer, GOP reaction to Mr. Obama?s proposal on Monday expressed a familiar sentiment, although in a less combative tone. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said that more than half of the president?s jobs bill?the part involving spending aimed at stimulating economic growth?was unacceptable to Republicans.

?Anything that is akin to a stimulus bill is not going to be acceptable,? he said. ?Over half of the total dollar amount is so called stimulus spending. We have been there, done that. The country cannot afford more spending like a stimulus bill.?

The largest chunk of Mr. Obama?s tax package comes from eliminating itemized deductions for people making $200,000 or more per year, including those for home-mortgage interest, state and local property taxes and charitable donations. The White House says that measure would raise roughly $400 billion over 10 years.

Enlarge Image

Getty Images

President Obama introduced his jobs proposal at the White House Rose Garden with workers on Monday.

For higher-income earners, the administration?s proposal would limit the value of itemized deductions to 28 cents for each dollar of income that is deducted. Currently, higher-income earners can use deductions to shelter larger amounts?33 cents or 35 cents on the dollar?because they?re in the 33% and 35% brackets.

Another proposed change would affect hedge funds and investment partnerships. Currently, many managers of those firms hold what is known as carried interest in their investments and receive much of their compensation through the appreciating value when those stakes are sold. Because the value often isn?t distributed for several years, those shares are taxed at relatively low capital-gains rates, currently a maximum of 15%. Mr. Obama proposed counting that as regular income.

Enlarge Image

Another provision would make corporate jets depreciate at the same rate as commerical airliners, seven years instead of five. It would save $3 billion over 10 years.

White House officials said Mr. Obama decided to release these particular measures this week, ahead of releasing his complete deficit-reduction plan, so the jobs bill could move on a path separate from and faster than the congressional supercommittee.

Separating the two proposals gives Mr. Obama another advantage: a clear plan to run on as he campaigns for his re-election. The president began to pitch his jobs proposal in Virginia on Friday and will continue doing so this week, daring Republicans to choose tax breaks for the wealthy over jobs for the middle class in two other electoral swing states, Ohio and North Carolina.

?It is a campaign,? White House press secretary Jay Carney said when pressed on Mr. Obama?s political motives. ?The president is campaigning?for growth and jobs.?

?John D. McKinnon and Jared Favole contributed

to this article.

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576566802250477510.html

Tags: news, north carolina

Source: http://northcarolinanews.info/north-carolina-news/gop-balks-at-taxes-to-finance-jobs-plan.html

benicio del toro aretha franklin bart the thing sprout sprout christina milian