Sen. Casey doesn’t embrace Obama’s plan on tax rates

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who is running for re-election, said Friday that he had not decided whether to support President Barack Obama and top Democrats on a plan to allow tax rates to rise for higher earners, as the Pennsylvania Democrat tried to encourage compromise ahead of a showdown on taxes, debt and spending cuts.

Casey, who has supported Obama’s signature policies during his freshman term, also told The Associated Press in an hourlong interview that he has tried to focus on pressing legislation that he believes will improve the climate for hiring and business growth while working toward compromises with Republicans.

Congress faces major questions of fiscal policy that are expected to dominate debate after the Nov. 6 election. Broad, decade-old income tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, the government is expected to hit its ceiling on borrowing authority and automatic spending cuts that lawmakers approved last year but now want to undo are scheduled to take effect.

Obama and Democratic leaders are pushing to allow tax rates to rise on people making at least 200,000 or families making $250,000 a year as part of any bipartisan compromise, but Casey said he would prefer a plan that exposes people making $1 million or more to the higher rates to help whittle down deficits and debt.

“I think you could probably get consensus on that [with Republicans], which is ultimately what we’re going to need,” he said.

Casey voted for Obama’s economic stimulus package, health care law, immigration bill known as the DREAM Act, bailout of U.S. automakers, overhaul of financial services regulations and the repeal of the military’s ban on gays serving openly. He nonetheless casts himself as a moderate who eschews partisan fights and is willing to vote against Obama and the Democratic Party.

His focus, he said, has been on tax bills that encourage investment and hiring — he hasn’t always won GOP support — while trying to meet Republicans in the middle.

“On a whole host of issues that relate to creating and preserving jobs for Pennsylvania and I think for the nation, I think I’ve got a strong record on that, but then also trying to do my best to try to help people reach common ground,” Casey said. “People who have worked with me know I’ve taken a lot of steps to try to lower the temperature a bit, try to work with people in both parties.”

Casey, 52, of Scranton, is the son of the late former Gov. Robert P. Casey and the former state treasurer and auditor general. He won a first six-year term in 2006 by soundly beating then-Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican. Serving another six-year term in the Senate would send him into a third decade in elected office.

His Republican challenger is Tom Smith, a newcomer to statewide politics from Armstrong County who runs a family farm after earning a small fortune in the coal-mining business.

Although Smith can tap his personal wealth to pay for an expensive campaign, Casey is viewed as a heavy favorite in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans four-to-three. A Quinnipiac University poll released June 27 showed 49 percent of voters surveyed favored Casey to 32 percent for Smith, while Casey held a three-to-one advantage in campaign cash as of July 1.

Popular with labor unions, the soft-spoken Casey is less liberal on some social issues — he says he opposes abortion rights and laws that further restrict gun ownership — and refused to say Friday whether he supports or opposes gay marriage. Instead, he said he supports “civil unions.”

He said he supported Obama’s move last month to allow some illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and apply for a work permit if they can prove they were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and have no criminal history. But he said he would have to see how it works “in terms of practical reality.”

As examples of his willingness to vote against Obama and Democratic leaders, Casey pointed to his opposition to free trade deals with Panama, South Korea and Colombia that Obama and Republicans both supported last year. He also cited votes in the spring for two amendments to a transportation bill — one to speed approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, the other to postpone tougher air pollution standards for industrial boilers. Both failed.

With Casey’s support, Congress approved projected 10-year spending cuts of $1 trillion that have started taking effect, an effort to begin addressing the nation’s $15 trillion-plus national debt. Beyond that, Casey said “there’s no question” that additional spending must be cut and suggested the government could find and eliminate wasteful private-sector contracts.

Congress will again be faced with boosting the nation’s debt ceiling to repay money it has already borrowed and spent after a lengthy fight last year between Obama and congressional Republicans drove the government to the brink of an unprecedented national default.

Republican leaders in Congress say they will demand spending cuts to offset an increase in the nation’s borrowing cap, but Casey said his support for the cuts would depend on what they target. Asked if he thought Obama should be blamed for the appearance of the government lurching from deadline to deadline, Casey countered.

“We all need to kind of look in the mirror,” Casey said. “The likelihood of getting an agreement is not more likely if we can assess and deposit blame on somebody. ... There’s no question we can get an agreement if people are willing to not be rigidly ideological and to be poisonously partisan.”