Liberals cry foul on potential budget deal

A liberal coalition is crying foul over an emerging budget deal that looks unlikely to seek savings from tax breaks that aid corporations and the wealthy.

Americans for Tax Fairness says that recent polling found that voters overwhelmingly favor replacing across-the-board sequestration cuts with new tax revenues, especially when the alternative is keeping all the cuts in place.

{mosads}“Restricting the use of offshore tax havens is overwhelmingly popular with the American people,” Frank Clemente, campaign manager of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement. “It’s a common-sense solution, and it needs to be on the table.”

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are seeking to finish off a narrow budget deal this week, ahead of their Dec. 13 deadline.

Ryan has said from the start that he wouldn’t back a plan that included revenues from ending tax breaks. But the deal he’s discussing with Murray could include revenues that are not necessarily counted as tax increases, such as increased user fees for airline travelers and spectrum sales.

Still, top Democrats remain committed to scrapping certain tax breaks, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) saying Monday that “tax loopholes for the wealthy are so big you could drive the biggest vehicle in the world through them.”