WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate’s top Democrat says Republicans will have to accept higher taxes on the rich and drop efforts to reshape Medicare if they want a deal on cutting the debt.
In a letter to GOP senators, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is blaming Republicans’ “strict adherence to tea party ideology” for the failure of lawmakers to find a budget compromise.
The Nevada Democrat’s letter was a response to one sent last week by Senate Republicans. In it, they said Congress and President Barack Obama should act this year to avert an automatic increase in income and other taxes that will occur in January when tax cuts enacted a decade ago expire.
Reid wrote that he believes a deal can be reached once Republicans drop their tax and Medicare proposals.