WASHINGTON – A faction of congressional Democrats is making a push to persuade President Obama to consider a compromise on tax policy that would leave only the nation’s 315,000 richest households facing higher taxes in January.
Over the past few days, a growing number of lawmakers have publicly embraced the idea of extending expiring tax cuts for families making as much as $1 million a year. They include Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who argued on “Fox News Sunday” that “we should draw the line in the sand for millionaires.”
The idea’s chief proponent, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said raising the income threshold from $250,000, as Obama has proposed, has the potential to unite fractious Democrats behind a single strategy on the tax cuts, which are set to expire Dec. 31 unless Congress acts.
Schumer also said the higher threshold would make it tougher for Republicans to say no.
“There’s a strong view in the caucus that if we make the dividing line $1 million, it becomes a very simple argument: We are for giving the middle class a tax break; they’re for tax cuts for millionaires,” he said Sunday.
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