House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer Cool To Compromise
By KEVIN ROBILLARD | 12/31/12 12:22 PM EST
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Monday he was “not enthusiastic” about an emerging deal to avert the fiscal cliff and wouldn’t commit to voting for it.
“[President Barack Obama] is prepared to compromise and has been willing to compromise and, in fact, has compromised throughout the last two years,” Hoyer said on MSNBC. “Do some Democrats not like that? Yes, I think that is the case. I frankly am not enthusiastic about the compromise being talked about today.”
Hoyer, a Marylander considered the most moderate member of Democratic leadership in the House, said he wouldn’t commit to voting either way until he saw a final bill.
“We’ll have to see what the final product is,” Hoyer said. “But I think we need to get to compromise, we need to move forward. Nobody wants to go over this cliff. Going over the cliff is economically harmful to the United States of America, to the growth of jobs in America and to the middle class. We don’t want to go over the cliff.”
Some Democrats have begun to express dissatisfaction with the deal being negotiated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden. While Obama campaigned on ending the Bush-era tax rates for income above $250,000 a year, Biden and McConnell’s negotiations have moved the dividing line closer to $400,000.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/hoyer-cool-to-compromise-85618.html#ixzz2Geap0L9H
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