Kate Scanlon examines for the Daily Signal the possibility that President Obama could avoid Congress to raise taxes.
The U.S. Constitution requires that tax bills originate in the House of Representatives. So could President Obama really impose a tax hike on Americans through executive action?
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama is “very interested” in raising taxes without congressional approval, according to a report by Townhall.
Recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., sent a letter to the president, advocating that the administration “act on its own” to close tax “loopholes.”
“Since the Republican-led Congress has refused to raise revenue by asking the most profitable corporations to pay their fair share, I would hope that the president could take executive action to remedy some of the most egregious loopholes,” Sanders said in a statement regarding the letter.
Asked about Sanders’ suggestion, Earnest said the president is “very interested in this avenue generally.”
“The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans,” Earnest told reporters.
Earnest cautioned that there is no “imminent” plan to raise taxes, but that the president is considering an “array of executive authorities that are available to him to try to make progress on his goals.”
Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said that the president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to raise taxes unilaterally.
