The Obama administration warned Congress against cutting a deal on extending tax breaks for businesses without also reauthorizing breaks for families on Monday, as lawmakers negotiate tax issues during the lame-duck session.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew issued a statement skeptical of one possible deal on the so-called tax extenders, a package of more than 50 expired temporary tax credits, deductions and other breaks that are usually renewed.
Although deliberations over the extenders remain in flux as lawmakers try to resolve their status before the end of the year and the 113th Congress, one possibility that has surfaced is that Republicans and Democrats would pass a deal that would make some of the biggest tax breaks for businesses permanent, fulfilling a key demand of House Republicans.
Such a deal “would do very little for working families and would be fiscally irresponsible,” Lew said.
He added that “any deal on tax extenders must ensure that the economic benefits are broadly shared.” The White House is working, he said, to make sure that any deal would be fiscally responsible and extend “critical tax benefits for working families,” a likely reference to increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit implemented as stimulus measures that will expire in 2017.
Lew’s comments came after White House press secretary Josh Earnest threw cold water on congressional proceedings at a press briefing earlier in the day.
Citing President Obama’s goal of promoting middle-class opportunity, Earnest said “an investment in significant, unpaid-for tax breaks for corporations without giving a tax break to middle-class families is not consistent with that philosophy at all.”
Congress is out of session this week for Thanksgiving. The House has set a goal of finishing legislative business before Dec. 11, when authorization for federal funding runs out. The Internal Revenue Service has warned that tax-filing season could be delayed if the extenders are not resolved before the end of November.
House Republicans have passed a number of bills to make business-related provisions permanent, including a tax credit for research and experimentation expenses and a measure that allows businesses to more quickly write off the costs of investments.
