The Gadsden Times | Aderholt: No tax increase to reduce debt

Aderholt: No tax increase to reduce debt
By Andy Powell | The Gadsden Times | July 1, 2011

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, said he opposes a tax increase coupled with spending cuts, as proposed by President Barack Obama, to reduce the national debt, and doesn’t think other Republicans will support the idea, either.

Aderholt, who was in Gadsden Thursday, said the GOP will stand firm and won’t support increasing the debt limit “unless there are serious concessions on spending.”

“I think that Republicans are going to be very apprehensive about doing any tax increase, and I think even the Democrats are going to be apprehensive about it,” Aderholt said.

“At this point, I don’t think there is any appwetite for increasing taxes.”

Aderholt sees alternatives to tax increases, and said, “That is just not the avenue that we need to go right now, especially with the economic situation.”

Aderholt said Obama can order that funds be spent to make debt payments.

“Whether he’ll do (that) or not, I don’t know, (but) he certainly has the ability to do that,” he said. “Nobody wants us to ultimately default, but there’s no reason that we should.”

Aderholt is serving his eighth term in the House of Representatives. He’s a member of the House Appropriations Committee and is chairman of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security.

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