Dem Senator: If Push Came to Shove, Extend Tax Cuts for Everyone

A Democratic senator said this morning on CNN that, given the option to just pass a middle-class Bush-era tax cut extension or let all the tax cuts expire, passing all tax cuts would be preferable.

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“My preference and my belief that the American public would be best served by the option that we extend the tax cuts for households earning less than $250,000 now,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said when pressed on what his choice would be. “I would considerate some later point, perhaps, additional measures that would provide relief for families that earn more than $250,000.”

But that wasn’t the question, he was reminded. “I said if you’re between a rock and hard place and have two options, one is to let the tax cuts expire or extend them for everybody, which would you choose?” host Soledad O’Brien asked.

“My preference is to extend tax cuts because I think that fiscal cliff is so ominous and so potentially destructive that we need to avoid it,” Blumenthal said. “But we also need to address the needs for cuts in spending, and I think a balanced approach is the optimal way to go. And ultimately one that I think should attract a bipartisan coalition.”

The senator added that such a bipartisan coalition should happen “preferably before election, but certainly before the end of the year.”

“If it has to be done after the election but before January 1st, that would be the best way to go,” Blumenthal said.

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