"I don't want taxes to go up. Republicans don't want taxes to go up"
- House Speaker John Boehner
With only a week remaining for the Democrats and Republicans to avert huge tax increases and spending cuts, President Barrack Obama called for a partial deal in order to avert tax increases on the middle class and protect unemployment insurance, which are likely to expire soon. Obama pledged his readiness to immediately sign a deal into law that extends tax cuts for those making $250,000 or less. At the same time, House Speaker John Boehner offered an increase in taxes on those who earns more than $1m, while 99.8% of Americans will be ensured a tax cut.
"I don't want taxes to go up. Republicans don't want taxes to go up. But we only run the House, the Democrats continue to run Washington," Boehner said.
"The fact that the House Republicans spent a week wasting time we didn't have has greatly exacerbated the problem," said Dan Pfeiffer, Mr. Obama's communications director.
"The president's statement is right," Mr. Isakson said Sunday on the ABC program "This Week." "No one wants taxes to go up on the middle class. I don't want them to go up on anybody, but I'm not in the majority in the United States Senate, and he's the president of the United States."
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