On Thursday, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) said the final deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff will include “over $1 trillion” in new revenues paired with “significant spending cuts.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Baucus (D-MT), the Chairman of the Finance Committee, said he was hopeful a deal could be reached “in the next few days.”
“I think, in the end, if there is substantial revenue, over $1 trillion, and also significant spending cuts, we are very close to getting a deal,” Baucus said.
On taxes, Baucus said he believes the “rates have to go up” in order “to get our budget down after a couple years to 3.5% of GDP.” He did say, though, that the top rate may not have to “go totally in my judgment up to 39.6%.”
On whether Senate Democrats might agree to means testing or raising the eligibility age on entitlement programs, Baucus did not rule those proposals out, saying they should not be “automatically excluded.”
Baucus also said it was his goal to lower the corporate tax rate to broaden the tax base.
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