Roll Call:  House Conservatives Rally Against Tax Increases

·         By Jonathan Strong

·         Roll Call Staff

·         Nov. 4, 2011, 5:47 p.m.

Conservatives are rallying against tax increases and trying to chip away at a recent bipartisan push for the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to “go big.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is circulating a letter urging the super committee not to increases taxes. The signatories include at least eight Members who signed a recent 100-Member “go big” letter to the debt panel, meaning not all of the Members from that group are ready to sign off on tax increases even in a substantial deficit reduction deal.

The move comes one day after Speaker John Boehner took a seemingly softer line on new revenues in a debt deal.

“I think there’s room for revenues. But there clearly is a limit to the revenues that may be available,” the Ohio Republican told reporters Thursday.

In the letter, McHenry says, “With current levels of taxation already limiting economic growth, we believe that marginal rates must be maintained or lowered and that repeal of any tax credit or deduction be offset with an equal or greater tax cut.”

Fifty Members have signed the letter. The eight who also signed the bipartisan “go big” letter are GOP Reps. Howard Coble (N.C.), John Duncan (Tenn.), Mike Kelly(Pa.), Jack Kingston (Ga.), Ron Paul (Texas), Phil Roe (Tenn.), Marlin Stutzman (Indiana) and John Sullivan (Okla.).

JonathanStrong@cqrollcall.com | @j_strong

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