Boehner rules out raising taxes but dodges question on closing loopholes

Full video at CSPAN.org
 

So check out this dodge by John Boehner at the thirteen-minute mark of a press conference earlier today on the June jobs report:

REPORTER: To get to four trillion dollars, you have to take some pretty big whacks at benefits?Social Security, Medicare?and Democrats would have a real problem with this, as they've said. What can you offer them, that would sweeten the deal, that would allow them to vote for something, that would make it very difficult for them?

BOEHNER: If you have any ideas you can pass them on.

REPORTER: How about a trillion dollars in closing loopholes?

Boehner never answered the question. Instead, he launched into a monologue about the importance of raising the debt limit. Earlier in the press conference he had ruled out raising taxes, but his refusal to take a public position on tax loopholes suggest he is open to a deal that includes substantial revenues from closing tax loopholes.

With respect to other aspects of debt negotiations, Boehner said that he personally favored what he called a "big deal," but added that "at the end of the day we need a bill that we can pass through the House and the Senate." He said that "serious disagreements" remained and said he didn't believe "this problem has narrowed at all in the last several days." Nonethless, Boehner did accept August 2 as the drop-dead date for raising the debt ceiling, suggesting he shares President Obama's view of the situation's urgency.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/zZOero_3TxI/-Boehner-rules-out-raising-taxes-but-dodges-question-on-closing-loopholes

politic politic data cnn politics data data politic politics polls