Republican House leaders voice serious concerns over fiscal bill

Foxnews

Washington –  House Republican leaders voiced serious concern Tuesday afternoon about the Senate's just-passed fiscal crisis bill during a closed door meeting with rank-and-file lawmakers, sources told Fox News. The response raised questions about how the House would handle the deal, which was highly touted by bipartisan officials in the Senate just hours earlier.
Doubts that the GOP-controlled House would pass the plan intensified Tuesday afternoon. Lawmakers have just two days to go before a new Congress convenes which limits the House’s options. The House can reject the plan, pass it as written by the Senate – which is unlikely given strong GOP opposition – or amend it. If the House amends it, the legislation goes back to the Senate where time constraints would likely kill it for the current Congressional session.
GOP lawmakers privately met midday Tuesday to gauge support for the accord. While Republican lawmakers expressed concern about the plan they did not directly speak out against it. Instead, Fox News has learned that House Speaker John Boehner held a venting session where members of his party voiced their concern about the legislation. Members also offered up options on what they’d like to see added in or taken out of the bill.
As Boehner listened to Republicans, Vice President Joe Biden listened to what House Democrats had to say. The outcome of Tuesday’s mini-meetings are not yet known. What is known is that time is running out for lawmakers to approve the plan or make meaningful changes to the one passed by the Senate this morning.
The Senate’s plan would prevent taxes from going up on the poor and middle class but would raise rates on households making more than $450,000 a year. It also would also put off for two months more than $100 billion in automatic spending cuts that were set to hit the Pentagon and domestic programs starting this week, and it would extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.
The Senate voted 89-8 in favor of the package two hours after midnight.
Senate leaders hailed the deal as an “imperfect” but vital solution to the fiscal crisis.
“The president wanted tax increases, but thanks to this imperfect agreement, 99 percent of my constituents won’t be hit by those hikes,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said.
Obama praised Senate lawmakers for passing the bill and implored the House to do the same.
"There’s more work to do to reduce our deficits, and I’m willing to do it," Obama said in a statement. "But tonight’s agreement ensures that, going forward, we will continue to reduce the deficit through a combination of new spending cuts and new revenues from the wealthiest Americans."
Senate leaders assembled the vote after a marathon weekend of talks during which Vice President Biden and McConnell did much of the hard bargaining. After the White House and Senate Republicans agreed to the framework, Biden was brought in once more to sell the deal to reluctant Senate Democrats Monday night.
The late-night deal ironed out the last major sticking point between the two sides -- what to do about the $110 billion in automatic spending cuts set to kick in starting in January.
Officials said the two sides agreed to postpone the cuts by two months, in exchange for a 50-50 mix of revenue increases and spending cuts. Of those cuts, half would come from defense and half would come from other budgets.
Fox News has also learned the deal contains a repeal of an ObamaCare program called the CLASS Act. The provision, which would set up a government-run long-term care program, was never actually implemented amid concerns that it couldn't generate enough revenue to sustain itself.
Fox News' Ed Henry, Chad Pergram and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/01/senate-leaders-aim-for-vote-on-fiscal-crisis-deal-as-congress-misses-deadline/#ixzz2Gl3muF5R

House reviews Senate fiscal cliff compromise; timing on vote unclear

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White House, Senate leaders reach deal on taxes, delaying 'sequester' cuts

President Obama and Senate Republicans reached a sweeping deal late Monday that would let income taxes rise significantly for the first time in more than 20 years, fulfilling Obama’s promise to raise taxes on the rich and averting the worst effects of the “fiscal cliff.”
According to Democratic aides, Vice President Biden is on his way to the Capitol to explain the details of the pact he negotiated with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and a Senate vote on the package could be held by 10:30 p.m. ET, beating a midnight deadline. White House officials gave in on the last issue, how to handle estate taxes, yielding to GOP wishes, aides said.
The House will begin considering the bill tomorrow, with a vote on final passage in the next day or two. 

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Obama: Fiscal cliff deal 'within sight'

(CNN) -- An agreement to avert the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts appears to be "within sight," President Barack Obama said Monday.

"There are still issued left to resolve, but we are hopeful Congress can get it done," Obama said.

The deal that was taking shape included an agreement to raise the income tax rate on top earners to what it was during President Bill Clinton's last term in office, according to sources close to the process.

A GOP source told CNN negotiators are "very close" to a deal. The sticking point is $24 billion in spending cuts being sought by Republicans, according to the source.

"It's like looking under the cushions at this point," the source said. "If we can't find that at this point, we should pack this place up."

But one leading Senate Democrat warned the deal could run into trouble -- not only from House Republicans who have long opposed any tax increase, but also from liberals in the Senate who oppose allowing more high-income households to escape a tax increase.

"No deal is better than a bad deal, and this looks like a very bad deal the way this is shaping up," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said.

President Barack Obama was expected to discuss the issue in public remarks at the White House.

Keep reading on CNN >>

No fiscal deal Sunday; Senate to return New Year's Eve

By Michael O'Brien, NBC News

After a day of talks that were expected to yield some sort of compromise on the so-called fiscal cliff, Senate leaders called off any further votes until Monday morning, just hours before the deadline that will trigger across-the-board tax increases and dramatic cuts in military and domestic spending. 

The Senate will meet again on New Year's Eve, the last full day before the "cliff" takes effect on Jan. 1. Negotiations were expected to continue in the meanwhile.

A day of wrangling in the Senate came and went without an accord to avoid the fiscal cliff, leaving lawmakers just a matter of hours to sort through thorny issues of taxes and spending that have beguiled Congress for the better part of the past two years. 

Significant distance remains between the two sides and negotiations continue, although the clock continues to tick. Even a simple deal appears far from certain.

 

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Republicans Turning Lincoln the Movie into Obama the Movie

By Judi McLeod

Pass the popcorn.

Barack Hussein Obama, the golf-playing Marxist president is being compared to Honest Abe.

Not by the Democrats, mind you, but by white flag-waving, go-along-to-‘git’-along Republicans.

According to some Republicans, desperately trying to duck the blame for taking America over the fiscal cliff and with Congress gridlocked, it’s now all up to Mr. Obama to produce a plan that can both cut deficits and win bipartisan support.

Keep reading on canadafreepress >>

Senators work behind scenes Saturday on fiscal deal, votes would come Sunday

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner outside the White House in Washington. (AP)

Senate leaders are working off-stage Saturday to reach a final-hours deal to avert a fiscal crisis, with no official proposals or votes expected until Sunday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has adjourned the chamber until Sunday so Democratic and Republican leaders can negotiate on a deal to present to the House.

House members will officially return to Capitol Hill on Sunday in expectation that the Senate will present them with a plan to stop tax increases that are scheduled to kick in next week.

Senate leaders from both sides of the aisle vowed late Friday to scramble over the weekend to produce a new bill, on the heels of a high-stakes White House meeting with President Obama that is seen as the last chance to come together before the tax-hike deadline.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he hopes senators can come forward with a recommendation as early as Sunday. 

Several senior administration officials told Fox News late Friday night that McConnell, R-Ky., is showing strong signs that he will help seal a deal.

However, they acknowledges he will have a difficult time getting a deal passed in the Republican-controlled House, which  has so far rejected any plan that includes allowing tax rates to increase for higher-earning Americans.

Reid called the White House meeting Friday "very constructive." 

"We need to have everybody step back a bit," he said.

The pledge to work on a new bill is by no means a solution to the sweeping set of tax hikes set to hit Jan. 1, followed by steep spending cuts. Lawmakers still have to write the bill, and produce something that can pass both chambers. 

Obama, speaking from the White House briefing room late Friday, voiced a dose of doubt about the Senate leaders' final push for a deal. 

He said he's "modestly optimistic" but that if Reid and McConnell fail, the Senate should allow an up-or-down vote on a scaled-back proposal the president is pushing. 

"The hour for immediate action is here, it is now," Obama said. "We're now at the last minute, and the American people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. ... We've got to get this done." 

Considering how late this effort is getting underway, lawmakers easily run the risk of missing the deadline and causing at least some uncertainty with Americans' tax bills starting next week. 

The developments late Friday, though, at least showed Reid and McConnell were beginning to work together. And it marked a decision by lawmakers that the Senate should make the first move -- for days, House Speaker John Boehner has insisted that the Senate act, but Reid has resisted and put the onus on the House. 

It's unclear what the new bill would entail. It appears the Senate wants to tweak the Obama plan, which would include an extension of current tax rates for most Americans -- but potentially adjust it so fewer earners see a tax hike, and add a provision dealing with a looming expansion of the estate tax. 

The debt ceiling, which Obama wants increased, would not be part of this bill. And a senior White House official admitted it is unclear how a looming set of spending cuts would be addressed. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/29/senators-work-behind-scenes-saturday-on-fiscal-deal-votes-would-come-sunday/#ixzz2GT2vFe9D

VIDEO: Obama Fiscal Crisis Statement

What leaders said after financial cliff meeting

politicalticker

Washington (CNN) - Congressional leaders spoke Friday after meeting about the fiscal cliff with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Congressional leaders attending the meeting was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Vice President Joe Biden was to be in attendance, the White House said, and an administration official said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would attend as well.

Obama was set to make a statement at 5:45 p.m. ET.
McConnell and Reid spoke on the Senate floor.
Reid said, “we had a constructive meeting. We certainly hope that something positive will come from that. The republican leader and I and our staffs are working and we’ll see what we can come up with. We shouldn’t take a long time to do that. …
“If we come up with something, it’s not that easy. We’re dealing with big numbers and some of the stuff that we do is somewhat complicated. But I think it was a very positive meeting,” he said. “There was not a lot of hilarity in the meeting, everyone knows how important it is. It was a very serious meeting and it took an extended period of time as you all know waiting for us.”
McConnell spoke immediately after Reid, saying, “I share the view of the majority leader. We had a good meeting down at the White House.
“We are engaged in discussions, the majority leader and myself and the White House, in the hopes that we can come forward as early as Sunday and have a recommendation that I can make to my conference and the majority leader [Reid] can make to his conference and so we’ll be working hard to try and see if we can get there in the next 24 hours,” he said. “And so I’m hopeful and optimistic.”
Boehner’s office issued a statement which said he “reminded the group that the House has already acted to avert the entire fiscal cliff and is awaiting Senate action.”
“The leaders spent the majority of the meeting discussing potential options and components for a plan that could pass both chambers of Congress,” the statement read. “The Speaker told the President that if the Senate amends the House-passed legislation and sends back a plan, the House will consider it – either by accepting or amending. The group agreed that the next step should be the Senate taking bipartisan action.”
In a paper statement, McConnell’s office also pointed to legislation which had passed the House.
“While the House already passed legislation in August to prevent tax hikes (a proposal Sen. McConnell supports), the President and Congressional leaders today agreed that the Senate must now act,” the statement read. “This will require a bipartisan approach. Members of the Senate will continue to work toward producing a bipartisan package in a timely manner to protect American taxpayers and jobs from a massive tax hike in January.”
Pelosi said the meeting was "constructive" and "candid."

White House Meeting Ends With No Sign of Breakthrough

foxnews

If Americans were looking to Washington on Friday to unveil a bold new solution for averting the fiscal crisis, they didn't get it.
President Obama, at a last-ditch meeting with congressional leaders just days before sweeping tax hikes take effect, presented a recycled version of the scaled-back proposal he pitched last week.
There was little sign of a breakthrough, as lawmakers left shortly after 4 p.m. Stocks on Wall Street dove at the close of the day, amid fears that the tax increases along with steep spending cuts will hit Jan. 1.
According to one source familiar with the White House meeting, Obama pushed lawmakers to either bring his proposal for a scaled-down bill to a vote or put forward a counterproposal of their own.
As she returned to Capitol Hill, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested Obama is trying to get the Senate to act first. "I think it moved us forward," she said of the meeting, without offering specifics about what was discussed.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it "very constructive."
"We hope it will bear fruit," the Democratic leader said, though he cautioned there was "no concrete proposal."
The president's plan is a far cry from the kind of "grand bargain" lawmakers were shooting for just a few weeks ago -- something that would narrow the deficit, overhaul the tax code and set the country on a course to curb its entitlement spending, all while averting massive tax hikes and spending cuts.
Instead, Obama wants a bill that primarily nixes the tax hikes for families making under $250,000. He has pushed that particular provision for months, though Republicans have adamantly opposed raising taxes on those making above $250,000. Obama's proposal would also extend unemployment benefits for roughly 2 million people expected to lose them next year, and deal with "other outstanding issues."
Obama referred to those other issues last week when he called for laying "the groundwork for future growth and deficit reduction," which presumably would be a commitment to return next year and draft broader tax and entitlement reform.
The latter idea, though, would stir deep skepticism in Congress -- the last big budget deal in the summer of 2011 ended precisely with such a commitment, which in turn ended in failure and the fiscal crisis facing the country today.
The immediate challenge for negotiators, though, will be to craft a plan that does enough to spare most Americans a big hike without doing so much as to complicate the bill's passage. There are a host of expiring provisions next year -- from Medicare rates to doctors to payroll tax cuts -- that some lawmakers hoped to address before the end of the month. The more items added to the bill, the trickier it gets to pass it.
Lawmakers have been hesitant to predict whether Congress will be able to arrive at any solution.
Earlier Friday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said: "I think it all comes down" to the White House meeting.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., continued to push for a "grand bargain," though that does not appear to be what Obama is pushing in the near-term.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, ahead of the meeting, called on leaders to "get serious."
"We are obviously running out of time here," he said.
Lawmakers effectively have fewer than two working days to pass legislation. While the Senate is in session, the House does not return until Sunday afternoon.
Between now and Jan. 1, Congress has just a handful of options for sparing taxpayers. Aside from the scaled-back "Plan C" being offered by Obama, lawmakers could simply pass a short-term extension of current rates -- buying more time to work out an agreement. Lawmakers might have to do this even if they reach an agreement by the weekend -- because of the sheer time it would take to write that bill and bring it to the floor.
Or Congress could let the tax hikes happen, only to retroactively deal with them next year. The Boston Globe reported Friday that the IRS may delay the impact of tax hikes by holding off on telling employers to change how much they withhold from workers.
House Republican leaders, though, still want the Senate to pass their bill that extends current rates for everyone. And Senate Democratic leaders still want the House to pass their bill letting taxes rise on households making more than $250,000.
The latter, though, would probably only pass in the House with a bloc of mostly Democrats. According to Politico, Boehner told his rank-and-file Thursday that he's "not interested" in passing a bill that way.
Fox News' Ed Henry and Chad Pergram and Fox Business Network's Rich Edson contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/28/obama-congressional-leaders-give-talks-to-avert-fiscal-crisis-one-last-try/#ixzz2GODQ2AXS

What happens to you if we go over the fiscal cliff

NBC News/ Allison Linn 

Some lawmakers are back in Washington hoping to hammer out a last-minute deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, but so far it seems that there’s more name-calling than deal-making going on.

If no deal is ever reached, it will be more than just a political headache. Americans also could feel considerable pocketbook pain as taxes rise, unemployment benefits are cut off and an array of smaller changes take effect.

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The cumulative effect on Americans’ wallets could be enough to dent significantly the already weak economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the combination of tax increases and spending cuts could be enough to send the nation back into recession.

That’s the worst-case scenario, and despite the considerable gridlock, most experts expect that Congress and the president will eventually come to some sort of deal. Experts also say that even if no deal is reached by Jan. 1, retroactive fixes and other dealmaking could prevent the most harmful effects from ever hitting most Americans.

Related: Consumers, businesses brace for fiscal cliff impact

Still, the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, says that nearly 90 percent of households would be affected if we go over the fiscal cliff completely and no deal is reached.

A stalemate would have very specific effects on certain groups of taxpayers, such as students, parents and married couples who have benefited over the past decade from certain tax law changes passed under the Bush and Obama administrations.

But the Tax Policy Center says that on average, taxes would go up for every income group, from the poorest taxpayers to the most wealthy:

• Americans in the lowest 20 percent of the income scale could pay an average of about $400 more in taxes.
• Middle-income households could pay about $2,000 more in taxes, on average.
• The top 20 percent of taxpayers could pay about $14,000 more a year in taxes, on average.
• The 1 percenters could pay an average of $120,000 more in taxes.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest issues likely to affect the largest groups of taxpayers if Congress cannot make a deal.

Tax rates will go up: If no deal is made, taxpayers can expect their tax rate to rise no matter what income group they fall in, said Roberton Williams, senior fellow with the Tax Policy Institute. That’s because previously passed rate cuts would expire.

“Everyone who has taxable income will see a tax increase because of the rates,” Williams said.

Payroll taxes: For the past two years, the employee’s share of taxes paid for Social Security has been set at 4.2 percent instead of the previous level of 6.2 percent. That temporary tax cut would expire without a new deal, meaning almost everyone’s taxes would rise by 2 percentage points.

Translation: Your paycheck would be a little bit smaller.

“That’s the thing that people will see first,” Williams said.

Alternative Minimum Tax:  The Alternative Minimum Tax  was originally designed so that wealthy taxpayers would be forced to pay a minimum level of taxes no matter what. But because it was not created to account for inflation, over the years it has threatened to affect an ever-bigger group of people.

Congress has previously passed temporary “patches” to keep lower-income households from having to pay more taxes. If no deal is reached this year, the latest patch would expire and the Internal Revenue Service says around 30 million additional taxpayers would become subject to the AMT.

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Of course, every taxpayer’s individual circumstances are different. To see how your family’s tax rates could be affected, you can check out the Tax Policy Center’s individualized tax calculator.

Taxes aren’t the only pocketbook problem Americans could face if a deal isn’t reached, because so much government spending is tied up in reaching a deal. But the most widespread effect would probably be on people who have been unemployed for a long time.

Unemployment benefits: About 2.1 million unemployed Americans are scheduled to lose federally funded unemployment compensation if Congress can’t reach a deal to extend the benefits plan by the end of the year. President Obama has said he’d like to see those benefits extended as part of a fiscal cliff deal.

The federally funded unemployment benefit extensions were introduced in 2008 while the country was in the depths of the recession. The extended benefits kick in after an unemployed person has exhausted his or her 26 weeks of state benefits. The exact amount of additional compensation depends on the unemployment rate in the person’s home state.

The unemployment rate has fallen sharply in recent months, but long-term unemployment remains a major problem. About 4.8 million people, or 40 percent of the total number of people who were unemployed in November, had been jobless for 27 weeks or more.

No scaled-back fiscal cliff plan, White House says

 

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Boehner calls House back to Washington on Sunday

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HARRY REID: 'It Looks Like' We'll Go Over The Cliff Because Of Boehner's 'Dictatorship'

businessinsider/ Brett LoGiurato

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid/ CNN

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this morning that it "looks like" Congress will fail to come to a deal to avert the year-end fiscal cliff, blaming the failure on House Speaker John Boehner's "dictatorship" running the lower chamber.

"It looks like that's where we're headed," Reid said. "I don't know, time-wise, how it can happen now."

It's not exactly a surprise — leaders left Washington last week without any imminent signs of a deal in the making. But it's a grim warning just days before tax hikes and automatic spending cuts begin to take effect.

Reid opened the Senate session by launching into a lengthy criticism of the House and Boehner, saying he "seems to care more about his Speakership" than making a deal on the cliff.

The House is being run "by a dictatorship of the Speaker," Reid said. He accused Boehner of waiting until the election of the Speaker on Jan. 3 to get involved with negotiations. And he urged the lower chamber to pass the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, which the Senate narrowly passed in July. The bill made permanent all of the Bush-era tax cuts on incomes of less than $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals.

Reid also slammed the House for not being in session on Thursday. He said that instead of being in Washington, Republicans are "out watching movies."

"They had to have a conference call," he said.

Reid's comments come a day after Boehner put the onus on the Senate on making the next move in fiscal cliff negotiations.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fiscal-cliff-harry-reid-negotiations-obama-boehner-taxes-cuts-spending-2012-12#ixzz2GGr4KwHP

FORGET THE DEFICIT: Here's The Real Reason Liberals Want To Hike Taxes On The Rich

businessinsider/Joe Weisenthal 

A common argument you hear from conservatives is that raising taxes on the rich is a joke of a deficit reduction proposal, because it hardly makes a dent in the deficit.

According to CNBC, reverting to Clinton-era levels would just get you about $40-$45 billion in the first year.

GOP Congressman Tom Price has gotten a lot of attention for saying it would only fund government for 8 days... so what's the point?

So what is the point?

Well, it's not really about deficit reduction at all.

Zachary Goldfarb at The Washington Post has a great piece on how Democrats once vehemently opposed the Bush tax cuts, but are now trying to permanently preserve all of them for the vast majority of taxpayers. One big reason is that the economy has changed, and there's a recognition among virtually everyone that the economy is too weak to let taxes rise above the board.

But as for raising taxes on the rich...

What’s more, income inequality has been growing. Sparing the middle class higher taxes while requiring the wealthy to pay more would tip the scales slightly in the other direction.

“The reason there’s been this movement toward broad consensus on renewing the tax cut for working- and middle-class families is that will give us a sharper progressivity in the tax system that is very much desired by Democrats and progressives who’ve seen an income distribution more and more distorted toward the wealthy,” said Betsey Stevenson, former chief economist in Obama’s Labor Department and a professor at the University of Michigan, who added that taxes may have to rise even more than currently contemplated to meet the country’s needs.

The point about making the tax code more progressive doesn't get talked about enough, but when discussing changing marginal tax rates, this should be the main issue.

The truth of the matter is that it's not going to be that easy closing the deficit using the tax code, or even via lower spending. Deficits are closed via more growth, and that's about it.

As this chart shows, a great predictor of deficits, going back decades, is the unemployment rate. The tax code has much less to do with it than people think.

But the tax code can help create more progressive outcomes, and at a time when inequality continues to rise, addressing that inequality is a major liberal goal. Actually it's not just a liberal thing. Most people in most societies feel that extreme inequality is problematic.

For those unfamiliar with it, here's a look at the Gini Coefficient (which measures societal income inequality; higher = more unequal) for the U.S.

So yes, tax hikes on those making $250K or more won't dent the deficit much.

But that's at a minimum a secondary issue in the tax discussion. It's all about trying to do something about inequality. Debt and deficits so thoroughly dominate politics, however, that politicians usually frame it through that.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fiscal-cliff-obama-heres-the-real-reason-liberals-want-to-raise-taxes-on-the-rich-2012-12#ixzz2GGpLcJiM

FISCAL TALKS FREEZE: Lawmakers Refuse to Make First Move to Avert Crisis

foxnews

You go. No, you go.
That's the refrain on Capitol Hill, as House and Senate leaders each refuse to make the first move in crafting a bill that can avert the fiscal crisis scheduled to hit next week. President Obama, en route from Hawaii, will land in Washington Thursday morning -- but with Republicans and Democrats not exactly talking to one another, it looks like Thursday will be another wasted day as the odds mount of a historic tax hike setting in Jan. 1.
Though Obama, before leaving on vacation Friday, expressed hope that both sides could come together on a scaled-down package that at least averts most of the tax increases, no compromise bill has emerged. Instead, the leaders of the House and Senate returned to familiar talking points late Wednesday, as part of a drawn-out waiting game with huge consequences. The Senate is waiting on the House, the House is waiting on the Senate, and Americans are waiting to see what will happen to their paychecks in 2013.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, in a brief written statement, urged Republicans to pass a Senate bill that raises taxes for households making above $250,000 and preserves current rates for everyone else.
"It is time for House Republicans to put middle class families first by passing the Senate's bill to protect 98 percent of Americans from a tax hike on January 1. The Senate bill could pass tomorrow if House Republicans would simply let it come to the floor," Reid said. "The Senate has already rejected House Republicans' Tea Party bills, and no further legislation can move through the Senate until Republicans drop their knee-jerk obstruction. Right now, the Senate bill is the only bill that can become law, and House Republicans owe it to middle class families to let it pass with Democratic and Republican votes."
House Speaker John Boehner earlier made the same argument about two Republican-passed bills in his chamber -- one extending current tax rates for everyone; the other rearranging the $110 billion in spending cuts set to hit next year.
"The House has acted on two bills which collectively would avert the entire fiscal cliff if enacted. Those bills await action by the Senate," he and other Republican leaders said in a statement. "If the Senate will not approve and send them to the president to be signed into law in their current form, they must be amended and returned to the House."
They said the House would either accept those bills or continue to amend them, adding: "The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass, but the Senate first must act."
With each side refusing to make the first move, it may be incumbent upon Obama to give a negotiated bill one last try, presuming he can get all the stakeholders in the same room. Also unclear is what role Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has stayed largely quiet throughout this debate, may play in pushing for an 11th-hour deal.
A new Gallup poll, though, showed Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about the chances for an agreement in roughly five days. The Senate is in session Thursday for unrelated business, but the House is not. House Republican members have been told they would be given 48-hours notice if they are called back. Considering the time it takes to write and pass a bill of this magnitude, the best route for averting tax hikes may be to pass a short-term extension of current rates with the goal of approving a larger package early next year.
Lawmakers have not even agreed to that, though. Without a deal, more than $500 billion in tax hikes are scheduled to go into effect. This includes increases in income tax rates, investment tax rates, the estate tax, the payroll tax and other provisions. Budget cuts to the Pentagon and other federal agencies threaten to hit government contractors. All together, a prolonged failure to avert these policies could cause another recession, economists warn.
While Reid is in Washington, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Thursday that Boehner has not yet left Ohio. Steel said "lines of communication remain open" -- but, reiterating the speaker's position, he said "communication is no substitute for Senate action."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/27/house-senate-leaders-frozen-on-fiscal-talks-as-odds-tax-hike-rise/#ixzz2GGSVUWB5

Finger-Pointing Mounts Over 'Fiscal Cliff'

AP

Fear, finger-pointing mount over "fiscal cliff"

By Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some lawmakers voiced concern on Sunday that the country would go over "the fiscal cliff" in nine days, triggering harsh spending cuts and tax hikes, and some Republicans charged that was President Barack Obama's goal.

"It's the first time that I feel it's more likely that we will go over the cliff than not," Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"If we allow that to happen it will be the most colossal consequential act of congressional irresponsibility in a long time, maybe ever in American history."

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/fiscal-cliff/2012/12/24/finger-pointing-mounts-over-fiscal-cliff?cmpid=NL_FiredUpFoxNation#ixzz2GBUiTVhQ

Stanton: Why John Boehner Will (Probably) Be Fine

Pat Dollard

Excerpted from Buzzfeed: WASHINGTON — Democrats and some conservatives are dreaming this weekend of a late Christmas present: House Speaker John Boehner’s head on a platter.

But that probably won’t happen, for several reasons. First, legislative coups are risky, and the fiscal cliff talks are still playing out. Meanwhile, Boehner is personally popular. The opposition has no clear leader.
But perhaps most important of all, it’s not clear that it’s in the interest of the conservative Republicans leading talk of the coup to dive into the messy business of making deals with a Democratic president and Senate, or assuming responsibility for the 2014 midterm elections.
“I’m not,” Boehner said Friday, asked whether he was worried about his speakership following the collapse of his attempt to rally Republicans around an alternative tax increase plan to President Obama’s. “They weren’t taking that out on me — they were dealing with the perception that they were raising taxes,” he said.
In theory, a coup is possible: many conservatives would gleefully support such a move — and few Democrats would shed a tear. And it would only take a handful of his conference to throw the election for speaker into chaos. As National Journal points out, it would take just 17 Republicans voting for anyone other than Boehner to throw the election into chaos.
But while he may have lost control of his conference, Boehner has a lot of reasons to not be worried about actually losing the speakership when the House convenes January 3rd to hold elections.
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Democrat Party Leader Claims Call to Shoot NRA Supporters Not a ‘Death Threat’

examiner.com

John Cobaruvvias, the Texas Democratic Party leader who issued a tweet advocating violence against NRA members, told Houston ABC affiliate KTRK Monday that his call to shoot supporters of the pro-gun group was not a death threat. “Can we now shoot the #NRA and everyone who defends them?” he tweeted after the Connecticut school shootings. [...]  Keep reading on visiontoamerica >>

Obama on cliff deal: 'Still think we can get it done'

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