Pat Dollard

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CNBC:

U.S. House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner called Wednesday for a two-year freeze on all current U.S. tax rates, including Bush-era tax cuts for the rich set to expire at the end of this year.

Speaking ahead of an economic address set for later in the day by President Barack Obama, Boehner also proposed that the U.S. government cut spending for next year to 2008 levels—before federal corporate bailouts and Obama’s $814 billion economic stimulus plan.

Boehner’s call for a freeze on tax rates amounts to a compromise with Obama in advance of Nov. 2 congressional elections, which are expected to result in big Republican gains in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate.

Obama favors extending former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the middle class, but allowing those for the wealthy—people earning more than $250,000 a year—to expire at the end of the year. Obama says the nation cannot afford to extend tax breaks for the rich.

Some Republicans have called for a permanent extension of the tax cuts, saying they are needed to spur economic growth.

To cut some of them could dampen economic growth, they say.

Boehner made his pitch for the two-year freeze on all rates in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” just hours before Obama was to speak in the lawmaker’s home state of Ohio.

“If we’re able to do this together, I think we’ll show the American people that we understand what’s going on in the country and we’ll be able to get our economy moving again and get jobs growing in America,” Boehner said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republican Leader John Boehner onWednesday proposed a two-year freeze on all tax rates and a cut in government spending to the levels of 2008, before a deep recession took hold of the economy.

In a broadcast interview, the Ohio Republican said he was offering a “bipartisan” alternative to the package of business tax incentives and infrastructure spending that President Barack Obama was slated to announce later Wednesday in Cleveland.

Obama has charged that the GOP criticizes him harshly, without offering any policy alternatives. Boehner touted his freeze-and-cut roadmap to recovery as an option instead of a catchall spending bill that Congress would pass later this fall.

Boehner said the biggest problem with the economy currently is the “uncertainty facing small businesses” that have been reluctant to engage in significant new hiring.

Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Boehner said the American people are asking, “Where are the jobs?” and that the Obama White House is “out of touch” with voters. But he also said that “I’m open to the president’s ideas.”