Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said on Thursday that he supports entitlement reform and not raising taxes as a way to increase government revenue and ease effects of the sequester budget cuts.
“I have said we ought to pursue entitlement reform that saves money, which is something both President Obama and House Republicans have proposed,” Cole said. “This additional revenue would enable us to ease the cuts imposed by the sequester.”
Cole also said he would be willing to consider pro-growth tax reform in order to reach a compromise.
“This would include measures such as the repatriation of stranded profits, additional revenue through expedited energy production of federal lands and offshore and asset sales,” Cole said. “None of these measures involve increasing taxes or tax rates, but all of them would yield additional revenue to the federal government.”
Cole said that if both sides of the aisle are willing to compromise a little, they would be able to find common ground and eliminate the impact of the sequester while lowering the deficit at the same time.
“The president and House Republicans agree that we need to reform entitlements,” Cole said. “And both agree that there are pro-growth policies that would yield additional revenue to the federal government without raising tax rates.”