Republican Senator Chuck Grassley predicts a few dozen tax credits, including the wind production tax credit, will easily win approval once the stalemate between the president and congress is broken.
“I believe when we break the ice and there’s a framework put together…then that gives the other committees of congress an opportunity to operate,” Grassley says, “and I think that you’d find unemployment and the wind energy tax credit and 59 other tax incentives that are expiring at the end of this year just kind of thrown into that package.”
Extended unemployment benefits are set to expire for about two million Americans before year’s end, as are the tax breaks Grassley mentioned.
According to Grassley, December 18 rather than the 31 is the key deadline for taking action in congress — to meet paperwork deadlines in the House and Senate. Grassley says he and other Republicans are willing to “give” the president $800 billion in additional tax revenue — but that solves just seven percent of the deficit problem lawmakers are trying to address.
“In other words, the other 93 percent is on the spending side,” Grassley says.
Like other Americans, Grassley has been following the public statements of President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in congress.
“And the only good news that I can give you that there might be progress — with emphasis upon the word ‘might’ — is the fact that neither one of them have bene talking about what they’ve discussed or their differences on television,” Grassley says. “Sometimes it’s a good indicator.”
The senator says congress won’t be able to tackle the long term problems in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Plus, Grassley says the changes that must be considered wouldn’t be implemented within the “10 year window” of the budget agreement that’s being negotiated.
Grassley made his comments this morning during a telephone conference call with Iowa radio reporters.