Aides later downplay the vice president's comment that the Obama administration may be open to keeping breaks for households making more than $250,000, an issue on which the GOP is not budging.
October 24, 2010|By Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau
Reporting from Washington
Vice President Joe Biden said the administration may be open to extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts to higher-income households, another volley in the simmering tax debate that is likely to be the lame-duck Congress' top order of business after the midterm election.
President Obama has said the nation cannot afford tax breaks for the wealthy because the cost of continuing them and others would climb to nearly $4 trillion. But Biden suggested a willingness to extend the cuts for households making more than $250,000.
"We're open to speak to the Republicans, if they really mean it," the vice president said Friday evening on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital with Al Hunt," according to a Bloomberg report. "If they're talking about deficit reduction, if they're willing to move, I think there's a possibility."
Aides downplayed Biden's comments Saturday, saying he has said nothing different than what the Obama administration has maintained throughout the debate: The tax cuts must be extended for middle-class households before considering continued tax breaks for the wealthy. Congressional estimates put the cost of extending the tax cuts for everyone at nearly $4 trillion over 10 years. Eliminating the breaks for the wealthy reduces the tab by about $700 billion.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky did not appear to take the vice president's comments as a serious offer.