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Boehner Pushes GOP Ideas On Overhauling Taxes

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) "plans Thursday to urge the supercommittee charged with cutting the nation's deficit to overhaul the tax code, his most direct remarks about the path the panel should undertake," Politico reports.

According to Politico, "Boehner will prod the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction lower the corporate rate and close loopholes — the preferred GOP method for cleaning up the nation's tax system."

Bloomberg News says Boehner "will call on the congressional debt-reduction supercommittee to lay the foundation for a tax-code overhaul that would reject rate increases and curb tax breaks, a congressional aide said."

And Bloomberg adds that "the speaker is to deliver a speech today to the Economic Club of Washington, where he will discuss a Republican outline on ways to create jobs while bringing down the nation's long- term debt."

The speech will be webcast here. The speaker's office says he will be stressing many of the points made in The House Republican Plan for America's Job Creators.

Boehner's speech is another GOP response to President Obama's address to Congress last week, in which the president laid out his latest plan for boosting job growth. Republican leaders have said they won't support the administration's suggestion that the $447 billion program be paid for with higher taxes on upper-income Americans.

Update at 1:23 p.m. ET: The speaker just said its time to end "name-calling ... and questioning of others' motives."

Update at 1:15 p.m. ET: Boehner just made his call for "tax reform" that includes lower rates and "closing loopholes."

"Tax increases, I think, are off the table," the speaker added, because they "destroy jobs."

Update at 1:10 p.m. ET: Boehner is now speaking. He's called Obama's jobs plan "a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed."

"This isn't that hard," he added. "What we need to do is liberate the economy from the shackles of Washington."

The House speaker has decried taxes, "out of control spending" and "unnecessary regulation."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.