Reaching an accord

by digby

I’m sure this will come as a big surprise, but Tom Coburn says the Gang of 6 isn’t planning any major tax hikes:

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a member of the Gang of Six group that is working on a plan to reduce the federal deficit, said that the group’s three GOP members wouldn’t sign on to an agreement that would raise taxes in a substantial way.

“There’s no plan to have a significant tax hike on anyone,” Coburn said on conservative talker Laura Ingraham’s radio show. “I don’t think there’s any of the three of us who will embrace tax hikes.”

Coburn has been working for months with Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) and Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Mark Warner (Va.) on a plan that’s considered one of the best hopes for reaching an accord on deficit and debt reduction.

The plan is due to be released sometime in early May, and Coburn emphasized Thursday that the Gang of Six hadn’t reached any agreement at this point.

But Republicans in the gang are under tremendous pressure from conservative groups to produce a plan that doesn’t raise taxes, a policy maneuver that would be anathema to many on the right.

While Coburn said that the talks wouldn’t yield any significant tax hike, he also said that didn’t mean some Americans’ tax burdens wouldn’t rise.

The Oklahoma conservative suggested that the Gang of Six is examining a kind of tax reform similar to the type suggested by President Obama’s fiscal commission, in which marginal rates are lowered but many tax credits are eliminated from the code.

Right. I’m sure those tax credits will all be the ones that have lobbyists defending them. After all, the last thing politicians need in an election year is money.

But don’t worry, the president has promised to let the tax cuts expire on schedule right after the election, so it’s not like tax hikes are off the table.