From the office of Rep. Peter Roskam (R, Illinois 6th District)…
With a long campaign season behind us, now is the time for members of both parties to come together in search of common-sense solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our country. In a few short weeks, the U.S. will be faced with the “fiscal cliff,” a combination of disastrous tax hikes and military budget cuts which would push our fragile economy back into a recession. I joined the “Kudlow Report” on Thursday night to address this serious issue.
On the Opportunity to Avert the Fiscal Cliff
I think that there is a tremendous opportunity, and here’s why: Speaker Boehner yesterday gave a statement, and he offered his sincere congratulations to President Obama and he said, “Look, we are willing to talk about more revenues.” These are revenues that we think that can come as a result of a growing economy, and the House has already acted on one proposal that says move forward and extend the current tax rates for one more year, and use that as a bridge to tax reform. Before there were voices on the Democratic side that were saying, “Well let’s just go over the fiscal cliff.” Well that’s a bucket of crazy. Nobody wants to go over the fiscal cliff, it’s ridiculous.
On the Need to Act Quickly to Prevent the Fiscal Cliff
There’s no percentage in dragging this thing out and playing a countdown type of drama. There’s nothing good that’s going to happen there. I think we need to agree in principle. The House has been working over the past two years on a tax reform agenda that is focused in on one word, and that is competitiveness. That’s been led by Dave Camp as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. So this tax reform effort is all teed up, and the country is highly dissatisfied with the current tax code. It’s an incredible opportunity for everybody to come together. I’m not here pumping sunshine and telling you that it’s easy, but what I am saying is that there is a unique opportunity to bring people together because nobody in their right mind should push us over this cliff.
