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Sources Say Sen. Reid Wants Millionaire Surtax to Pay for Jobs Bill

WASHINGTON–  Senate Democrats are considering a surtax on millionaires to offset the cost of President Barack Obama’s $445 billion jobs bill, according to several party aides.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., outlined plans for a 5 percent surcharge in a closed-door meeting with the rank and file, according to participants, as Obama traveled to Texas to deliver his most caustic challenge yet to House Republicans who have not allowed a vote on the legislation unveiled nearly a month ago.

“What’s the problem? Do they not have the time? They just had a week off. Is it inconvenient?” he said in Mesquite, Texas, singling out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for special criticism.

There was no indication Cantor, R-Va., or the House Republicans would agree.

The move would be an effort to win more support for the package within the Democratic Party. Republicans have said they oppose the plan, and even some Senate Democrats have been critical of aspects of the plan.

After three weeks of presidential demands for Congress to pass his jobs bill without delay, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Obama was open to Reid’s changes.

“We offered a balanced way to pay for the American Jobs Act, but if Congress has a better idea that ensures that everyone pays their fair share, we’re open to it,” Pfeiffer said.

On a day rich in political maneuvering, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell announced he was ready for an immediate vote on the bill, even though he opposes it. Reading aloud on the Senate floor from a copy of Obama’s speech, he said, “I do think the president makes an important point that he is entitled to a vote.”

The request was blocked by Reid, who called it a “political stunt” and said he would make sure the bill comes to the floor this month. Aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Jay Carney accused Republicans of gamesmanship.

The parliamentary dance aside, the day’s events underscored that as submitted by the White House, Obama’s bill would not only fail in the Republican-controlled House, but faced enough opposition from Democrats to endanger its prospects in the Senate, as well.

“There’s the good, the bad and the ugly. The ugly was $447 billion,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., referring to the overall size of the president’s request.

Yet while Republicans and Democrats appear to be pointing to a showdown that could reverberate into the 2012 election campaign, some elements of the measure could clear Congress with relative ease by year’s end.

As an example, Republicans have not ruled out extending and expanding the payroll tax cuts that took effect on Jan. 1, at a cost of $247 billion over a decade, the single priciest item in Obama’s legislation.

Democrats said Reid’s proposed millionaires’ surtax was designed to quell much if not all of the opposition from his own rank and file, a subject that Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking leader, referred to in an interview with reporters.

“We’re also obviously going to work on the number of votes to support it. It may not be the exact plan offered by the president, but I think he, when he presented it to us, said that we need to be open to some variations and modifications,” Durbin said.

The payroll tax cut extension faces little if any opposition from Democrats, and Obama’s request for more than $100 billion in new spending as a way of creating jobs is also popular within his own party.

To pay for his $447 billion plan, Obama has proposed higher taxes on family incomes over $250,000 and on the oil and gas industry.

The first request troubles Democratic senators from states like New York, New Jerseyand California, where large numbers of families could be hit by the increase. The second has drawn opposition most prominently from Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose state is home to numerous oil and gas operations.

The president also proposed higher taxes on hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, and those increases, too, would disappear under the changes Reid is expected to unveil as early as Wednesday.

His office declined comment on the emerging plan for a surcharge on millionaires, but several Democrats, speaking anonymously to discuss the developments, said it was being drafted to cover the entire $447 billion cost of the legislation.

In political terms, Democrats appear to be hoping that Republicans will oppose both the higher taxes on million-dollar-earners and the president’s call for new spending aimed at reducing joblessness, thus leaving the GOP open to a charge of protecting the wealthy at the expense of the unemployed.

Reid predicted that by the time the jobs bill comes to the Senate floor, almost all Democrats would be behind it. “There could be — I don’t know who — but there could be some that don’t support it. But it would be a rare situation,” he added.

In his speech in Texas, Obama referred to Cantor one day after the Virginia Republican said the White House’s “all or nothing approach is unreasonable.”

“Eric Cantor said that right now, he won’t even let this jobs bill have a vote in the House of Representatives. That’s what he said. Won’t even let it be debated,” the president said.

“At least put this jobs bill up for a vote so that the entire country knows exactly where members of Congress stand,” Obama said. “Put your cards on the table.”

Cantor’s spokesman rejected the criticism.

“If House Republicans sent our plan forAmerica’s job creators to the president, would he promise not to veto it in its entirety? Would he travel district to district and explain why he’d block such common-sense ideas to create jobs?” Brad Dayspring said. “House Republicans have different ideas on how to grow the economy and create jobs, but that shouldn’t prevent us from trying to find areas of common ground with the president.”

House Republicans have begun passing legislation to block or roll back administration regulations on several industries, saying their removal will create jobs.

While Republican lawmakers appear receptive to tax cuts the president has called for, they have expressed strong opposition to his proposed new spending.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/04/ap-sources-say-sen-reid-wants-millionaire-surtax-to-pay-for-jobs-bill/#ixzz1ZulERwof

“Give Me a Break, Everyone Knows He’s Lying”

House Republicans Request Special Counsel to Probe Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are calling for a special counsel to determine whether Attorney General Holder perjured himself during his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Operation Fast and Furious, Fox News has learned.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, was sending a letter to President Obama on Tuesday arguing that Holder cannot investigate himself, and requesting the president instruct the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel.

The question is whether Holder committed perjury during a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3. At the time, Holder indicated he was not familiar with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program known as Fast and Furious until about April 2011.

“I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,” Holder testified.

However, a newly discovered memo dated July 2010 shows Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder that straw buyers in the Fast and Furious operation “are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

Other documents also indicate that Holder began receiving weekly briefings on the program from the National Drug Intelligence Center “beginning, at the latest, on July 5, 2010,” Smith wrote.

“These updates mentioned, not only the name of the operation, but also specific details about guns being trafficked to Mexico,” Smith wrote in the letter to Obama.

“Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel. I urge you to appoint a special counsel who will investigate these allegations as soon as possible,” Smith wrote.

In response to the release of the memos, a Justice Department official said that the attorney general “has consistently said he became aware of the questionable tactics in early 2011 when ATF agents first raised them publicly, and then promptly asked the (inspector general) to investigate the matter.”

The official added that in March 2011, Holder testified to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee of that development, and regularly receives hundreds of pages, none of which contained information on potential problems with Fast and Furious.

“The weekly reports (100 + pages) are provided to the office of the AG and (deputy attorney general) each week from approximately 24 offices and components. These are routine reports that provide general overviews and status updates on issues, policies, cases and investigations from offices and components across the country. None of these reports referenced the controversial tactics of that allowed guns to cross the border,” the official said.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., “of all people, should be familiar with the difference between knowing about an investigation and being aware of questionable tactics employed in that investigation since documents provided to his committee show he was given a briefing that included the fast and furious operation in 2010 – a year before the controversy emerged,” the official continued.

Issa told Fox News on Tuesday morning that Holder saying he didn’t understand the question rather than he didn’t know of the program is not a successful defense to perjury.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, adde that months before Holder testified — on Jan. 31 — he came to Grassley’s office, where Grassley gave him a letter detailing the investigation of Fast and Furious.

“If he read my letter, he knew on January 31,” Grassley told Fox News. “He probably actually knew about it way back in the middle of last year or earlier.

Grassley said since he’s not a lawyer he’s not going to make a judgment on whether Holder committed perjury.

“But I can tell you this. They’re doing everything they can, in a fast and furious way, to cover up all the evidence or stonewalling us. But here’s the issue, if he didn’t perjure himself and didn’t know about it, the best way that they can help us, Congressman Issa and me, is to just issue all the documents that we ask for and those documents will prove one way or the other right or wrong.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/04/house-republicans-to-request-special-counsel-to-probe-holder-on-fast-and/#ixzz1Zq2IBkAu