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# Senate Finance Committee Looking for Fiscal Cliff Solutions
- URL: https://ivn.us/senate-finance-committee-looking-for-fiscal-cliff-solutions/
- Published: 2012-11-21T16:00:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-22T19:36:21.000Z
- Author: Alex Gauthier
- Tags: News

source: finance.senate.gov

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dc/be/dcbe1ac4-146f-43be-92a6-ea84728d86a6/content/images/2026/02/senate-finance-committee-looking-for-fiscal-cliff-solutions-17905.jpg "baucus and hatch")](https://ivn.us/2012/11/20/senate-finance-committee-looking-for-fiscal-cliff-solutions/baucus-and-hatch/)

As negotiations on how to resolve the ‘fiscal cliff’ broil on, the Senate Finance Committee acts as a crucible to determine policy outcomes. The Finance Committee naturally maintains heavy influence over policy relating to taxes and entitlement programs and Chairman, Max Baucus (D-Montana), has revealed somewhat positive indications regarding fiscal cliff talks.

Baucus [told](http://www.kaj18.com/news/baucus-hopes-congress-can-avoid-fiscal-cliff-/?ref=ivn.us#!prettyPhoto/0/) local news affiliate KPAX:

> “I expect good faith, because the election is over and more than that, members of Congress know what the problem is. They know we’ve got a huge big debt. It’s got to be chipped away at. They know we can’t go off this fiscal cliff and I think we’ll find a solution.”

The Hill has [indicated](thehill.com/homenews/senate/268805-baucus-demands-seat-at-table-for-tax-budget-talks) that parts of Finance Committee member Ron Wyden’s (D-Oregon) “Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2011” are likely models for parts of a budget deal. The bill, cosponsored by Dan Coats (R-Indiana), would “\[Create\] a new 35 percent exclusion and a progressive rate structure for dividend and long-term capital gains income.”

This near 20 percent increase provides a significant revenue option for lawmakers. The Congressional Budget Office [found](http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/120xx/doc12085/03-10-reducingthedeficit.pdf?ref=ivn.us) that similar policies of increasing the capital gains rate could “raise revenues by a total of $10 billion from 2012 through 2016 and by $49 billion from 2012 through 2021.”

Regarding other aspects of a budget deal, Baucus has been [pushing](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83831%5FPage2.html?ref=ivn.us) for rate hikes on the top 2% of Americans, but not necessarily for them to return to their pre-Bush levels of 36% and 39.6% for high earners.

Yet, Ranking Finance Committee Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) spoke out against raising tax rates on Fox News [Monday](http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/2012/11/20/tax-hikes-center-fiscal-cliff-talks?ref=ivn.us):

> “Well, we hope so, because none of us are for rate increases. We are for finding enough revenue to satisfy the president in the code itself. I think that's something we can do. But to raise the rates would hit a million small businesses and lose about 700,000 jobs.”

The details of a final budget overhaul are still unknowable, and congressional Republicans and Democrats largely remain split on raising tax rates for those earning over $250,000 a year. Baucus and the Democrats have shown some flexibility with regards to how high, but many Republicans remain unmoved.