OBAMA WANTS TAX BREAKS TO REPLACE SEQUESTER
As Warned, the Greenbook is Still on His Agenda
As warned in our recent Client Update newsletter ( Newsletter Spring 2013 ), President Obama may seek to close exceptions to normal rules in a stance that he may argue isn’t a further increase in revenues that Republicans have said are off the table. Many of these are part of the Administrations published proposals [Greenbook-http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/Pages/general_explanation.aspx]. President Obama Feb. 7 insisted that raising revenues by ending some tax breaks and deductions is essential to replacing the sequester, which are the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts now scheduled to take effect March 1.
Republicans, while voicing concerns about the damaging effects of the sequester, suggest that the only way to replace it is to cut Social Security and Medicare, “and not close a single loophole, not raise any additional revenue from the wealthiest Americans,” the president said.
The president raised the issue of the sequester to House Democrats at their retreat in Leesburg, Va. Earlier in the week, Obama proposed a short-term delay in the sequester through a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reform.
Obama told House Democrats he is still “prepared, eager, and anxious” to negotiate a big deficit-reduction package that would finally end fiscal crises that he said seem to recur every few weeks and months.