-Senate Majority Leader Reid Says Soc Sec Not Part of Budget Talks
-Senate Dem Whip Durbin: Budget Talks Should Use Simpson-Bowles
-Sen. Schumer: Need $1.5T In Revs For Broad Budget Agreement

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his
Democratic leadership team said Wednesday that President Obama should
push for a comprehensive budget agreement in the context of fiscal cliff
negotiations, adding that the final accord should include about $1.5
trillion in new revenues.

Speaking to reporters after Senate Democrats re-elected their
current leadership team, Reid took a hard line stance on both taxes and
Social Security.

Reid said House Republicans could solve much of the fiscal cliff
problem by passing a bill that the Senate cleared this summer that would
extend Bush era tax cuts for those families making $250,000 or less.

Reid said a deficit reduction plan should call on the “richest of
the rich” to pay more in taxes.

Reid said emphatically that Social Security should not be part of
coming talks regarding the fiscal cliff or broad deficit reduction.

“Social Security is not part of problem,” Reid said, adding that
program is “sound for the next many years.”

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin said a budget agreement should
follow the “basic concept of Simpson-Bowles” with a minimum of $4
trillion in deficit reduction over a decade and with a blend of tax
increases and spending cuts.

Durbin said that reaching a budget agreement will not come quickly.
“It take time to do the things that need to be done,” Durbin said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the third ranking Senate Democrat, said that
$1.5 trillion in new revenues is needed for a full deficit reduction
package.

“We can get there,” he said, but added it will require increasing
tax rates on upper income people and closing tax loopholes and credits.

He warned Republicans “not to play games on revenue” by using
dynamic scoring or claiming that closing tax loopholes will generate
sufficient revenue to solve the nation’s fiscal problems.

Republican leaders have said they are open to new revenues but
oppose raising marginal tax rates.

President Obama meets with congressional leaders Friday to discuss
the fiscal cliff and other budget matters.

** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

–email: jshaw@mni-news.com

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