Congressional Leaders Spar over Tax Increases

Appearing in separate television talk-shows on Sunday, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi made clear their party’s stance of the issue of additional tax hikes.

Congressional negotiations which somehow managed to save the economy falling off the cliff, are heading towards another round of heated discussions. Political brinkmanship is very much on the cards.

While McConnell said that enough has been done on the tax front and proposed spending cuts, Pelosi ruled out to refuse raising further taxes on wealthy Americans.

Speaking CBS’ ‘Face The Nation’, Pelosi said, “I’m saying that’s not off the table [The Possibility of raising taxes].” Although the Democratic leader from California declined to discuss in details, saying that she wasn’t getting into specifics, she did talk about alterations in tax law which could entail some deductions and other breaks.

McConnell meanwhile sounded resolute on the issue of avoiding additional tax increases on high income earners even as he vehemently insisted on slashing federal spending.

Speaking to ABC’s, ‘This Week’, the Kentucky Republican said, “That’s behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and our future, and that’s our spending addiction.”

Until we address the entitlement programs and make the eligibility for entitlements meet the demographics of our country, we can’t ever solve this problem,” added the Republican leader.

In another television appearance, NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’, McConnell said that even though he favored tax reform, he was not in supporting more revenue through higher taxes.

Global equities rallied last week after the U.S. congress averted the fiscal disaster by approving 39.6% tax rates on individuals having annual income over $400,000 and couples having annual income over $450,000, which allowed postponing series of automatic spending cuts and extended Bush-era tax cuts on income earners on most Americans. However, equity markets are likely to remain wobbly over next two months as heated negotiations as to debt ceiling and spending cuts issues will keep investors edgy.

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Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.