Washington, DC – In light of news this morning that the economy continues to grow at a slow pace, Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) urged Democrats to join Republicans in preventing job-killing tax hikes to go into effect on January 1, 2011.

“Today’s announcement that the economy continues to struggle is no surprise to American workers and businesses.  This is simply further proof that the Democrats’ tax, borrow, and spend approach has failed to promote economic growth and job creation.  The Democrats’ unrelenting attacks on the private sector have frozen investment and hiring as employers wait to see what the government will do to them next.  Congress needs to immediately prevent the looming 2011 Democrat tax hikes and rein in out of control spending to allow the private sector to do what it does best – create jobs.”

More and more economists are lining up behind the Republican call for no tax increases.  In an interview last evening with PBS’s NewsHour, Mark Zandi, Moody’s Economy.com Chief Economist, who is often called upon by Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats for economic guidance and advice, agreed that the Democrats should forgo their planned $3.8 trillion tax hike.

When asked about the economy and the deficit, Dr. John Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University noted that:

“The best stimulus I think would be to forego any tax increases for at least the next few years.”

When the topic was directed toward Mark Zandi, he agreed with Dr.Taylor:

“I would not allow those tax increases to take hold on January 1st either. I think economy’s still too fragile for that.”

###