Club for Growth Glad Plan B Defeated

The conservative group Club for Growth praised House Republicans on Friday for pushing House Speaker John Boehner to cancel Thursday’s vote on his “Plan B” measure that would have raised taxes on individuals making more than $1 million a year.

Earlier this week, the organization attacked the Ohio Republican for publicly making concessions on the debt ceiling and on taxes to President Barack Obama in negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff.

“Thanks to members of the House, elected with Club PAC support, the Plan B tax increase was defeated,” said Chris Chocola, president of the Washington-based group. “Fiscal conservatives revolted, and Speaker Boehner was forced to pull the bill.

“The Speaker even tried to ‘buy’ votes by including spending increases that broke the sequestration deal (just as we predicted),” Chocola said.

Boehner’s retreat on Thursday evening capped a raucous day on Capitol Hill that included heavy lobbying of the House rank and file. The Speaker also called an emergency meeting of the Republican Leadership Conference to assess whether he had enough votes to pass the measure.

Boehner lacked the support — and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., soon announced that no vote would be taken and that the House would adjourn until two days after Christmas.

“Lawmakers now need to focus on the long-term pro-growth solutions to grow our economy and reform entitlements instead of their myopic concerns of how polls will blame them tomorrow, next week, next month, or ahead of the next election” Chocola said. “The standard by which we should measure legislation is not whether it generates revenue to the government. Instead, the paramount consideration should be whether it promotes growth and reduces the size of government.

“The Club will continue to closely monitor the progress of Congress and urge Senators and Representatives to find a pro-growth solution to the fiscal cliff,” Chocola said.

Letter is reprinted below.

Like many of you, we at the Club have been watching the ongoing debate over the “fiscal cliff” closely. A brief reminder of how we got here: President Obama and Republicans in Congress agreed to a 2-year extension of the Bush tax rates two years ago, and then pushed through a deal to raise the federal debt limit last summer that created “sequestration” or automatic spending cuts if a so-called “super committee” couldn’t reach a deal on deficit reduction. The combination of tax increases and spending cuts set to happen at the beginning of January 2013 is a culmination of these two deals in what is now known as the “fiscal cliff.”

The Club opposed the August 2011 debt limit deal because it raised the debt ceiling without structural reform (like a Balanced Budget Amendment). We firmly believed that Congress would never allow sequestration to happen, and that all we’d be left with is trillions in new debt.

Earlier this week, after publicly putting tax increases and yet another increase in the debt limit on the table during negotiations with President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner announced that he would put forward a proposal to raise marginal income tax rates, as well as rates on capital gains and dividends. He called this anti-growth tax increase “Plan B.”

Thanks to members of the House, elected with Club PAC support, the Plan B tax increase was defeated. Fiscal conservatives revolted, and Speaker Boehner was forced to pull the bill. The Speaker even tried to “buy” votes by including spending increases that broke the sequestration deal (just as we predicted).

Lawmakers now need to focus on the long term pro-growth solutions to grow our economy and reform entitlements instead of their myopic concerns of how polls will blame them tomorrow, next week, next month, or ahead of the next election. The standard by which we should measure legislation is not whether it generates revenue to the government. Instead, the paramount consideration should be whether it promotes growth and reduces the size of government.

The Club will continue to closely monitor the progress of Congress and urge Senators and Representatives to find a pro-growth solution to the fiscal cliff. Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas, happy holidays and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year!