Hayworth Takes Aim at Hall’s Vote to Delay Tax Vote
| Like President Obama and most Democrats in Congress, Rep. John Hall wants to renew the Bush-era tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans.
His vote on Wednesday to adjourn the House before it has taken up the issue has given ammunition to Nan Hayworth, the Republican hoping to unseat him in November. For weeks, Democrats and Republicans have debated whether to extend current tax rates before or after the Nov. 2 elections and whether tax rates for people in the two highest income brackets should be allowed to rise. Hall sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter Tuesday urging her to schedule a vote before the House’s pre-election recess. A day later, he voted with her and most Democrats to close the session, even as 39 other Democrats broke ranks. The motion passed by one vote. “I know futility when I see it,” Hall said Thursday, explaining his change of heart. Hall, who calls the expiring tax cuts “Republican tax increases,” since a Republican-led Congress limited how long they would last, said he fully expects Congress to extend most of the reduced tax rates before they run out at the end of the year. “There’s not a chance, not a prayer, that the Republican tax increases will take place this year,” said Hall, D-Dover Plains. Hayworth, who calls Hall’s vote to adjourn a “failure of leadership,” is less certain. “We don’t really know what they’re going to do after the election, because they’re punting on it,” she said. Timing aside, their disagreement mirrors the national divide over Obama’s plan, which would continue existing tax rates for everyone except individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000. Hall said he’d prefer a threshold of $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples, given the high cost of living in his district. But he supports the concept, arguing it would “allow those who have benefited the most to pay back into the system to help us pay down the deficit.” Hayworth counters that leaving that money in private hands for people to spend and invest would be better for the economy. “They are small businesses, they are investors, they are savers, they are consumers,” she said of the people in those upper income brackets. “These are funds that if they go to the federal government are less productive.” She disputed the Democrats’ argument that raising taxes for the top brackets would lower the deficit by $700 billion. “I find that line of reasoning deplorable,” she said. “It’s not the federal government’s money.” cmckenna@th-record.com |