Policy

Boehner Offers To Trade Tax Hike for Entitlement Cuts

Are those real cuts or government "cuts"?

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House Speaker John Boehner offered to raise income tax rates on households earning more than $1 million a year in exchange for containing the cost of federal entitlement programs, as part of a deal with President Barack Obama to cut the federal deficit, according to two people familiar with the talks.

The offer, made in a Dec. 14 phone call between the two leaders, marks the first time Boehner has entertained an increase in income tax rates in his talks with Obama to avoid more than $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and across- the-board tax increases set to start next month.