Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions said Congressional Republicans are willing to increase tax rates for top earners if their democratic colleagues make significant reductions to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, he told Bloomberg TV Friday night.
“If it’s a good deal, yes,” Sessions said, when asked whether he’d accept a trade-off involving tax rates. “If it does something long term that betters the circumstances.” He went on to say that there wouldn’t be enough time to enact legislation by the end of the year, but both sides could agree to a specific outline and enact it next year:
“We’re not going to do something in the dark, late at night where no one knows what the practical effect and outcome is,” Sessions said. “If we do that, we do get primaried. We can come to a specific agreement.”
Sessions said that there wouldn’t be enough time to also include a spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year and an increase in the debt ceiling in the current talks. He said Republicans were willing to discuss those issues later.“The president needs to know that we’re willing to negotiate,” he said.
