Boehner Shoots Down Compromise

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other top Republicans “shot down a proposal by a senior GOP lawmaker that the House agree to President Obama’s demand to extend current tax rates for the middle class,” The Hill reports.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), “a respected party strategist and former chairman of the House GOP campaign committee, became the most prominent House Republican to suggest that the GOP do what has long been unthinkable within the party: lock in the George W. Bush-era tax rates for income up to $250,000 without simultaneously extending them for top earners.”

Said Boehner: “We’re not going to grow the economy if we raise tax rates on the top two rates. It’ll hurt small businesses. It’ll hurt our economy. That’s why it’s not the right approach. We’ll willing to put revenue on the table as long as we’re not raising rates.”