Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl says Democratic claims that the GOP doesn’t want to create new revenue are a mischaracterization — the Republicans just do not want to change the tax code to raise taxes.
“Well, we’ve not refused any new revenue — for example, we’ve been discussing fee increases and some other things that would actually generate revenue,” Kyl said on “Fox News Sunday.” “What we object to is changing the tax code — we don’t need new taxes right now. We need to reduce spending.”
The key to solving the nation’s fiscal crisis is to get “economic growth going again,” said Kyl, who walked out of negotiations on the debt ceiling Thursday, along with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, citing an impasse over tax increases.
“In the last quarter, our economic growth was less than 2 percent,” Kyl said. “We need to put people back to work. Most economists agree that in times of economic downturn like this the last thing you want to do is to add more taxes onto the economy. So it would be inimical to economic growth and job creation, which is what we all should be urging here.
“When our economy grows and people are making more money, at the same income tax rates, they will pay a lot more in taxes — and the government will have more revenue,” he said. “But you don’t want to pile taxes on at a time when companies don’t have the ability to invest and hire people. That’s the primary reason we are opposed to raising taxes right now.
There also is a “practical problem,” Kyl said, because the House is not going to pass budget legislation that has higher tax increases.
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