Boehner unveils his own plan to aid economy





NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- House Minority Leader John Boehner outlined a plan to bolster the economy on Wednesday, just ahead of President Obama's speech detailing a $350 billion plan to boost jobs.

In a statement, the Ohio Republican identified the "two main problems hampering job creation" as "excessive government spending and the uncertainty Washington Democrats' policies -- especially their massive tax hike -- are causing small businesses."

Boehner called on House Republicans to take on the problems in two ways.

For one thing, he suggested passing a bill that "cuts non-security related government spending for the next year back to FY 2008 levels -- before all of the bailouts, government takeovers and 'stimulus' spending sprees began."

He blamed Obama's support of the stimulus spending for leading to "fewer jobs and more debt." He said that "fiscal discipline" is needed to drive job creation and "prevent a lame-duck Congress from writing another bloated omnibus spending bill after the November elections."

As the second point, he suggested the Congress "enact a two-year freeze on all current tax rates to stop job-killing tax hikes on families and small businesses."

"While President Obama intends to move forward with his plan to raise taxes on half of small business income in America, House Republicans will continue to fight to permanently stop job-killing tax hikes," said Boehner.

One of the hottest political issues is whether to extend the George W. Bush's administration's tax cuts, which expire on Dec. 31, to all Americans or only to those with family incomes below $250,000 a year -- which the Obama administration favors.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki wrote on her blog Wednesday that Boehner's call for a "two-year extension of these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans" would hurt the economy.

"This is nothing more than a throwback to Bush-era budget gimmicks that helped get us into the fiscal mess we're in today, an attempt to mask the true budget-busting cost of the Republican agenda," she wrote.

Obama was speaking Wednesday in Cleveland. His administration is proposing, among other things, $200 billion worth of corporate tax breaks. The breaks would allow businesses to write off 100% of new investments in plants and equipment between now and the end of 2011.