Even though it ended the payroll tax cut, Democratic Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush told The Daily Caller that the fiscal cliff deal signed into law by President Obama is a “win-win” for American people.
TheDC asked Rush if he was disappointed that Congress did not pass a payroll tax cut extension.
“Well, we all have some disappointments. Oh man, you know, was it a perfect bill? No, it wasn’t but it was something that we could pass. Compromise is the order of the day, and that’s a very valuable word that really don’t get a lot of redress here,” Rush told TheDC on Friday at the Capitol.
“The fact that we can have compromise, bipartisanship, in this place on these particular kind of issues, I think, it’s a win-win for the American people.”
William G. Gale, the co-director of the Tax Policy Center, said that under the bill to avert the fiscal cliff “taxes will go up in 2013 relative to 2012 – not only on high-income households, as widely discussed, but also on every working man and woman in the country, via the end of the payroll tax cut.”
TheDC also asked Rush if he thinks President Obama should have the power to unilaterally increase the debt ceiling, which is expected to be the next big fiscal issue to come before Congress.
“We’re going to take all of the vast array of viewpoints, bring them into the room, fight about them, compromise on them and come out and enact a bill as it relates to the debt relief that I think will be pleasing to the American public,” Rush responded.
“The one thing that I’m comfortable with as a result of yesterday and today’s votes is that this process does work and that this is the best process in the world for government to make decisions as it affects the people who it is charged with preserve and protect.”
Rush was then asked for his personal position on the debt limit.
“I certainly am not willing to compromise — or I’m not willing to just willy-nilly [say] new spending as being the only sole, singular panacea or solution to this enormous problem,” he said.
“I think it has to be balanced, very balanced. And certainly we cannot raise or increase the debt limit through delivering more pain and problems to the most vulnerable in our society. So, that’s my position.”
The nation reached the current debt limit on New Years Eve.
