Democratic Rep. Mike Honda told The Daily Caller that he does not “want to go” over the fiscal cliff, which would include tax increases for every income bracket at the end of this year without congressional action.
Honda said Americans should tell Congress to “stop fussing around” and “temporarily” extend the Bush-era tax cuts for families earning below $250,000 per year.
“No, no — I don’t want to talk about that,” Honda said when TheDC mentioned the prospect of a fiscal cliff. “I don’t even want to go there on the cliff because I have a budget called ‘The Budget for All’ — that’s my answer to the things that we’re faced with as a country.”
Honda, who spoke with TheDC after delivering remarks at the Education Department’s Bullying Prevention summit on Monday, referred to the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ “The People’s Budget” as an alternative to the White House proposal.
This budget “creates new tax brackets that range from 45 percent starting at $1 million to 49 percent for $1 billion or more” and “implements a progressive estate tax.” It would also allow the Bush tax rate cuts to expire on Dec. 31, 2012.
“All of my answers are right in there: It’ll address everything that this country’s faced with: With the fiscal challenges and the non-decisions that our government, our policy makers have not been able to deal with so, you know, the people have to speak and say, ‘We want a balanced budget that deals with all these things. Stop fussing around,'” Honda told TheDC. (RELATED: Howard Dean: ‘I think we ought to go over the fiscal cliff’)
TheDC also asked Honda if he would support tax rates going up for every American if Congress does not back Obama’s position to allow the Bush-era tax cuts for income over $250,000 per year to expire.
“No, absolutely not,” he responded. “We should have the top 2 percent pay their fair share, we can push forward the tax cuts temporarily for the other 98 percent – that seems to be the thing that’s on the table right now. What I put on the table is in my budget.”