2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBoehner's Press Conf this afternoon
This guy makes me sick, this is from his early afternoon press meeting. We really need to let this thing just go over the cliff.
Boehner: W.H. has ‘done nothing’ on cliff talks
By: Jake Sherman and Carrie Budoff Brown and John Bresnahan
December 20, 2012 12:04 PM EST
Speaker John Boehner, using his harshest tone of the fiscal cliff debate, said the White House has “done nothing” since he relented on letting low tax rates lapse on wealthy Americans.
“For weeks the White House said if I moved on rates, that they would make substantial concessions on spending cuts and entitlement reform,” Boehner said in an afternoon news conference. “I did my part, they’ve done nothing.”
With just days before Christmas, and less than two weeks until tax increases and spending cuts kick in, Boehner also voiced hope for the stalled negotiations. He said he expects that stalled negotiations between he and President Barack Obama will restart. And cast doubt that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would ignore his fallback bill, which would extend Bush-era tax rates on income below $1 million.
For the time being, all of Boehner’s hope and bluster is just that, as the speaker plans to vote on his fallback option to avert the fiscal cliff Thursday evening.
Negotiations with the White House are at a standstill because the two sides are divided on how much federal spending should be cut, how much taxes should be raised on the wealthiest Americans and who, exactly, those wealthy Americans are.
But the fallback bill Boehner and his leadership are preparing is not a slam dunk, either. Republican leadership was working privately to shore up support for the bill Thursday.
One Republican member, speaking anonymously to speak candidly about party machinations, said “I think we get there but it’s no sure thing. A few Democrats will help. We need all day.”
But the same time, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said unequivocally that the bill would pass.
To help shore up support late Wednesday night, Republican leaders incorporated a proposal to spare the Pentagon from looming spending cuts and shift the reductions to other agencies.
Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said the plan is the “nation’s best option.”
“Senate Democrats should take up these measures immediately,” Cantor said in the Capitol. “And the president has a decision to make, he can support these measures, or be responsible for reckless spending and the largest tax hike in American history.”
Republicans are saying that publicly, and privately. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the retiring No. 2 in the Senate, visited House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) deputy whip meeting Thursday, saying if the lower chamber passed Boehner’s bill, it would strengthen the GOP’s hand.
Kyl, according to a source , predicted that the Senate would drop the $1 million threshold, but send it back to the House.
But the Plan B is dead even before the vote, as President Barack Obama has already said he would veto it. Just after Cantor’s news conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appeared on the other side of the Capitol calling the vote a “pointless political stunt.”
Reid and his fellow Democrats insisted they wouldn’t schedule a vote on the fall-back plan or try to amend it. They demanded that Boehner return to the negotiating table with Obama. They said the only fiscal cliff deal that could is one negotiated by Boehner and the president.
“We are not going to do it and the speaker needs to hear from you and every journalist in this room,” Reid told reporters Thursday. “Let him get serious. He’s not serious now.”
But aides to Boehner say no serious negotiations will occur until after the House vote Thursday evening.
Behind the scenes, Democratic leaders warned Boehner and his team that they are badly misreading the situation. The Senate will not take up Boehner’s bill until the House votes on extending tax rates on income below $250,000, they have been warned. Boehner and his team scrapped a vote on that measure Wednesday.
Plus, the spending cut package passed the House several months ago and was ignored by Reid.
To put it lightly, Washington is stuck in neutral. Absent some breakthrough between Boehner and Obama, over the next few days, Washington will hit pause on the fiscal cliff until after Christmas.
Cantor and GOP leadership are keeping their members in Washington after they pass the so-called “Plan B.” The majority leader said “we want to stay here, and we want to avoid the fiscal cliff from happening.” Boehner said the House might remain in session throughout the weekend.
But time is short for other reasons. The Senate is expected to wrap up a series of bills as soon as Thursday before senators travel to Hawaii for the late Sen. Daniel Inouye’s funeral over the weekend. The Senate then wouldn’t return to session until Dec. 27. There wouldn’t be much time before all taxes on Americans would rise and the sequestration spending cuts take effect.
The likelihood is Washington will reengage after Christmas — perhaps on Dec. 26 or 27 — and try again to avert the tax increases set to hit every American.
The gap between the two sides is simultaneously narrow and wide. On taxes, they’re in the same ballpark. Boehner wants to hike taxes on income more than $1 million. Obama has said he would set the threshold at $400,000 but on Wednesday signaled he’s open to moving up to $700,000 or $800,000.
Spending reductions are where the two sides are farther apart. Boehner wants a one-to-one ratio — $1 dollar cut for every dollar raised in revenue. But by Republican calculations, Obama is short, because he counts money saved in interest payments that the government will no longer need to pay.
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sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)the rules are that you can only copy something like 4 paragraphs of an article unless you have specific permission to post the whole thing or wrote it yourself and
You should link to the original article so others can see the attribution.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)DU could be sued by the authors for plagiarism. I think that's why we can't post whole articles without permission from the authors.
No problem, I didn't know.
Filibuster Harry
(666 posts)If he continues to up the taxable income it will hit the million. And dividend and cap gains at 20%. We have to stop this. Call your politicians. Call or email the white house. We did not re-elect him to cave on this.
Democrats hold strong -- no deal for the sake of a deal. The people are behind the democrats-- these Rs have obstructed for 2 years now and continue.
The biggest tax increase in history -- because idiot Bush gave us the biggest tax decrease in history while we were at war. And these same damn Rs in the house didn't complain about spending then.
