DAILY BEAST Column: …A former senior staff member of the House Ways and Means Committee says of Boehner: “He can’t cave or the conference will revolt.” The best Boehner can hope for in 2012 is to extend the Bush tax cuts for those below $250,000, cap the highest bracket at something below 39 percent (he has said the top rate will rise to 43.4 percent), and make up the difference in the way itemized deductions are handled…
Some feel that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will order withholding rates on those below $250,000 to remain the same. Then the vast number of income taxpayers would see no change in their taxes while the Congress and the president hash out a solution after the new Congress is seated on Jan. 3, 2013. “The theory is Geithner will take the chance that the Bush tax cuts will be renewed for those earning less than $250,000 and there will be no need for retroactivity,” the former staff member says.
That, however, would rob the president of a major bargaining chip: the expected fury of working Americans at the Republicans in the House for having raised their taxes… (more)
