Newt Gingrich says President Barack Obama should extend the tax breaks instituted under former President George W. Bush, and is taking the White House to task for its “job-killing policies.”
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” the former speaker of the House told host Chris Wallace that “Americans should be very concerned” about predictions that unemployment should stay at 9 percent for all of 2011. “This is the first time since the Great Depression that we have had this level of unemployment continuing for more than a year,” he said. “And I think it's because you have job-killing policies. …
“I think the stimulus package was fundamentally wrong because trickle-down bureaucracy doesn't work. I think the tax increases that are buried inside the health bill are going to further depress the economy. I think the tax increases and regulations in the financial reform bill will further depress the economy.”
The Bush tax cuts are set to expire in January, but the Republican Party has promised an all-out fight to keep them from expiring. The Obama administration has said it wants to end tax breaks for Americans earning $200,000 or more a year, and couples who earn $250,000 or more annually.
Gingrich says continuing the tax cuts is essential to America's economic recovery.
“I'd extend,” he said. “I would simply say no tax increase next year. Keep current law as it is, and extend no tax – have no tax increase next year, and look seriously at something like [Ohio] Congressman [Jim] Jordan's five tax cuts.”