President Obama plans to announce Thursday afternoon that he is nominating White House chief of staff Jack Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, a White House official told Fox News.
Keep reading on foxnews >>
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Partido Republicano. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Partido Republicano. Mostrar todas las entradas
jueves, enero 10, 2013
domingo, enero 06, 2013
jueves, enero 03, 2013
‘Negotiating’ With the Left: A Waste of Time
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| John Boehner |
Having lived in Greater Cincinnati for most of my life, I’ve had a chance to observe Congressman John Boehner’s actions and performance from a perspective most haven’t.
Most of what I saw until he became House Speaker in January 2011 was good — usually very good. What has transpired since has not been. Boehner and House Republicans have been unable to put the brakes on the country’s headlong rush towards insolvency driven by President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the federal regulatory leviathan, and the courts, or on their continued trampling of our fundamental freedoms.
I can already see the excuses: “Tom, the House of Representatives is only one-half of one of the three branches of government. You can’t expect Boehner and Republican leaders to withstand the daily assaults from all other quarters.” Sure, I get that. Add the adversarial, hostile, double standard-driven establishment press to the mix, and one can totally understand the daunting challenges the Speaker has faced.
There’s one problem with that attempt at justification, and it has nothing to do with ordinary expectations. It instead has everything to do with the heightened expectations Boehner and the Republican Party created in the run-up to the 2010 congressional elections, embodied in both the party’s Pledge to America and Boehner’s October 2010 speech just a few weeks before Election Day.
By that time, it was clear to almost everyone, thanks to the growing influence of the Tea Party movement, the pathetic economic recovery, and the unprecedentedly awful job market, that Nancy Pelosi’s reign as Speaker of the House was going to end, and that Boehner, with a solid post-election GOP majority, was a virtual lock to become its next Speaker.
Boehner’s speech and the party’s Pledge gave millions of frightened mainstream Americans hope that they could, and would, right the ship of state. Consider just a few things Boehner said in that October speech, and compare them to actual results.
“(This speech is) about the jobs that were promised to the American people by the current administration, and never delivered.”
At the time, total seasonally adjusted private-sector employment as measured by the Establishment Survey at the Bureau of Labor Statistics was eight million below its January 2008 peak. 25 months later, private-sector employment, which should by now have jumped to several million above that 2008 high, is still down by 3.7 million. Even those grim statistics understate the gravity of the employment situation and how little improvement we’ve seen, especially in comparison to past recoveries. Full-time employment as measured by the BLS’s Household Survey is still 6.2 million lower than its peak in late 2007, while part-time employment is up by 2.8 million. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, over 800,000 of the 3.3 million net jobs added have gone to those who toil at temporary help firms.
“The greatest threat to job creation in our country is the flawed idea that we can tax, spend and borrow our way to prosperity.”
In the 24 months Boehner has been Speaker, the government has run a deficit of over $2 trillion, spent over $7 trillion, increased the national debt by over $2.4 trillion, and done almost nothing to contain the explosive growth of entitlements.
“Our plan cuts spending immediately, back to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels.”
If that were currently the case, the government would be spending about $2.9 trillion annually — still far more than necessary to carry out its constitutionally assigned functions (a topic for another day). Instead, it has spent $3.4 to $3.6 trillion during each of the past four fiscal years, and is off to a record-shattering start in fiscal 2013.
“Your government is out of control. Do you have to accept it? Do you have to take it? Hell no you don’t! That’s what elections are for! In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote that ‘we have it in our power to begin the world over again.’ In just 25 days, voters will have a chance to do just that.”
Unlike many others, I really believe that John Boehner intended to get what he described as an “out of control” government back on track. Nobody who heard that speech could possibly have imagined that he would acquiesce to an August 2011 debt-ceiling deal that put off serious consideration of what we are doing to our children, grandchildren and generations yet to be born until after the 2012 elections, seriously crippling 2012 GOP election campaigns across the land. There was also no reason to believe that Boehner would just over two years later get behind fiscal cliff-preventing legislation which by some accounts involves $41 in tax increases for ever dollar in spending “cuts,” which we know really means “reductions in projected spending increases.” A January 2 Wall Street Journal editorial asserts that the legislation involved represents “the biggest tax increase in 20 years” coupled with “spending increases.”
So what happened? Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Washington Republicans have naively believed, and probably still do despite their repeated humiliations, that there can be honest negotiations with Washington Democrats led by the most radical president in U.S. history. That is not possible.
Boehner’s only alternative from Day 1 of his speakership, something which I erroneously thought he finally realized in that 2010 speech, was to:
• Insist on constitutional grounds that the House would consider no revenue-raising legislation originating in the Senate. (Article 1, Section 7: “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.”)
• Pass comprehensive legislation to accomplish the goals articulated in the Pledge for America.
• Adjourn, and don’t come back. If the Senate or the President wouldn’t sign, then the government would shut down, and it would be blindingly obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense who caused it.
The People’s House has the constitutional power of the purse. John Boehner hasn’t leveraged it. Until he or the next Speaker does, the left will rule the fiscal roost in Washington, and our nation’s rapid descent into bankruptcy will be virtually assured.
miércoles, enero 02, 2013
John Boehner told Harry Reid to "go f--- yourself"
foxnews/
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| newswhip.com |
As nasty as the battle over the fiscal crisis bill looked on the floors of Congress, it was even nastier behind the scenes.
Sources confirmed to Fox News that House Speaker John Boehner told Harry Reid to "go f--- yourself" while passing by the Senate majority leader at the White House Friday.
The outburst came after Reid, on Thursday, took to the floor and
likened Boehner to a dictator. Reid had claimed Boehner was holding back
a bill out of concern for his speakership.
"John Boehner
seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the
nation on firm financial footing," Reid said Thursday, claiming the
chamber was "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker."
Boehner did not take kindly to the accusation. Politico first
reported that Boehner swore at Reid when he saw him the next day at the White House, where congressional leaders were convening for a meeting.
Reid reportedly seemed startled, asking, "What are you talking about?" Boehner then repeated, "Go f--- yourself."
Boehner's office offered "no comment" on the incident.
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
Norquist: Cliff Deal ‘Technically’ a Tax Cut
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| dailymail.co.uk |
Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist said in an interview Tuesday that the fiscal cliff deal to keep most Americans’ taxes from increasing is “technically” a tax cut and does not violate the anti-tax increase pledge most Republicans in Congress have signed.
Norquist also told CNN's Anderson Cooper that when budget cuts to replace the blanket sequester of the cliff are discussed during the first two months of the year that there is room in the Pentagon budget to increase efficiency and cut waste.
“It’s technically not a violation of the pledge,” he said, adding “but I understand why a lot of Republicans said, ‘look, even though what’s happening is the tax cuts disappear, we’re restoring them for most people. So we’re not raising taxes, we’re actually cutting taxes.’”
Most Republicans in Congress have signed the pledge to voters not to raise taxes during their first campaigns for office, and it is seen as a significant promise to their constituents which they work to keep at every turn.
“They need to be able to say with a straight face that they fought to protect those tax cuts for everybody, and all the Republicans in the House have done that more than once,” Norquist said. “They’re fighting to oppose any and all tax increases.”
With a deal on the cuts reached, Norquist said that when Congress begins to look at the budget, they need to look at everything — including the sprawling Pentagon section which takes up a large portion of it.
He said that while the country must have a strong military to “make sure nobody can throw a punch at us successfully,” there are things to look at. Pensions and decisions on contracting are two significant ones, he said.
“Serious conservatives need to declare that they, that taxpayers, are looking at the entire budget and saying, ‘where can we be more efficient and more effective?’ We have a rather large Pentagon budget, larger than most of the other countries in the world that have armies, navies, and air forces combined,” Norquist said.
“Part of a strong America is to not have this massive spending that we’ve been having.”
Norquist said that the reason compromise on the cliff has been so difficult is because the Democratic and Republican parties are looking to move in opposite directions. “If somebody wants to go east, and somebody wants to go west, what would a compromise be? I’m in favor of compromising in the direction of liberty,” he said.
“The Democrats have an expansive view of the role of government,” he said. “They want higher taxes in order to spend more money. The Republicans want lower taxes and spending less money... We had a compromise in 2011. Republicans wanted to cut spending by $6 trillion — the Ryan plan — and we agreed to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. That was a compromise.”
“We wanted more spending [cuts], we got less, because Obama wouldn’t support more spending reduction. So, you can have compromise in the direction of liberty, but raising taxes and spending more money, which is what Obama wants to do, is moving away from liberty. That’s not compromising for the American people. That’s losing.”
Norquist also told CNN's Anderson Cooper that when budget cuts to replace the blanket sequester of the cliff are discussed during the first two months of the year that there is room in the Pentagon budget to increase efficiency and cut waste.
“It’s technically not a violation of the pledge,” he said, adding “but I understand why a lot of Republicans said, ‘look, even though what’s happening is the tax cuts disappear, we’re restoring them for most people. So we’re not raising taxes, we’re actually cutting taxes.’”
Most Republicans in Congress have signed the pledge to voters not to raise taxes during their first campaigns for office, and it is seen as a significant promise to their constituents which they work to keep at every turn.
“They need to be able to say with a straight face that they fought to protect those tax cuts for everybody, and all the Republicans in the House have done that more than once,” Norquist said. “They’re fighting to oppose any and all tax increases.”
With a deal on the cuts reached, Norquist said that when Congress begins to look at the budget, they need to look at everything — including the sprawling Pentagon section which takes up a large portion of it.
He said that while the country must have a strong military to “make sure nobody can throw a punch at us successfully,” there are things to look at. Pensions and decisions on contracting are two significant ones, he said.
“Serious conservatives need to declare that they, that taxpayers, are looking at the entire budget and saying, ‘where can we be more efficient and more effective?’ We have a rather large Pentagon budget, larger than most of the other countries in the world that have armies, navies, and air forces combined,” Norquist said.
“Part of a strong America is to not have this massive spending that we’ve been having.”
Norquist said that the reason compromise on the cliff has been so difficult is because the Democratic and Republican parties are looking to move in opposite directions. “If somebody wants to go east, and somebody wants to go west, what would a compromise be? I’m in favor of compromising in the direction of liberty,” he said.
“The Democrats have an expansive view of the role of government,” he said. “They want higher taxes in order to spend more money. The Republicans want lower taxes and spending less money... We had a compromise in 2011. Republicans wanted to cut spending by $6 trillion — the Ryan plan — and we agreed to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts. That was a compromise.”
“We wanted more spending [cuts], we got less, because Obama wouldn’t support more spending reduction. So, you can have compromise in the direction of liberty, but raising taxes and spending more money, which is what Obama wants to do, is moving away from liberty. That’s not compromising for the American people. That’s losing.”
martes, enero 01, 2013
Details of Tentative Deal
WASHINGTON – Highlights of a tentative agreement Monday between the White House and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., aimed at averting wide tax increases and budget cuts scheduled to take effect in the new year. The measure would raise taxes by about $600 billion over 10 years compared with tax policies that expire at midnight Monday. It would also delay for two months across-the-board spending cuts otherwise set to begin slashing the budgets of the Pentagon and numerous domestic agencies.
Highlights include:
--Income tax rates: Extends decade-old tax cuts on incomes up to $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Earnings above those amounts would be taxed at a rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Extends Clinton-era caps on itemized deductions and the phase-out of the personal exemption for individuals making more than $250,000 and couples earning more than $300,000.
--Estate tax: Estates would be taxed at a top rate of 40 percent, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates. In 2012, such estates were subject to a top rate of 35 percent.
--Capital gains, dividends: Taxes on capital gains and dividend income exceeding $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families would increase from 15 percent to 20 percent.
--Alternative minimum tax: Permanently addresses the alternative minimum tax and indexes it for inflation to prevent nearly 30 million middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from being hit with higher tax bills averaging almost $3,000. The tax was originally designed to ensure that the wealthy did not avoid owing taxes by using loopholes.
--Other tax changes: Extends for five years Obama-sought expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, and an up to $2,500 tax credit for college tuition. Also extends for one year accelerated "bonus" depreciation of business investments in new property and equipment, a tax credit for research and development costs and a tax credit for renewable energy such as wind-generated electricity.
--Unemployment benefits: Extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for one year.
--Cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors: Blocks a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors for one year. The cut is the product of an obsolete 1997 budget formula.
--Social Security payroll tax cut: Allows a 2 percentage point cut in the payroll tax first enacted two years ago to lapse, which restores the payroll tax to 6.2 percent.
--Across-the-board cuts: Delays for two months $109 billion worth of across-the-board spending cuts set to start striking the Pentagon and domestic agencies this week. Cost of $24 billion is divided between spending cuts and new revenues from rules changes on converting traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs.
Highlights include:
--Income tax rates: Extends decade-old tax cuts on incomes up to $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Earnings above those amounts would be taxed at a rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Extends Clinton-era caps on itemized deductions and the phase-out of the personal exemption for individuals making more than $250,000 and couples earning more than $300,000.
--Estate tax: Estates would be taxed at a top rate of 40 percent, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates. In 2012, such estates were subject to a top rate of 35 percent.
--Capital gains, dividends: Taxes on capital gains and dividend income exceeding $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families would increase from 15 percent to 20 percent.
--Alternative minimum tax: Permanently addresses the alternative minimum tax and indexes it for inflation to prevent nearly 30 million middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from being hit with higher tax bills averaging almost $3,000. The tax was originally designed to ensure that the wealthy did not avoid owing taxes by using loopholes.
--Other tax changes: Extends for five years Obama-sought expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, and an up to $2,500 tax credit for college tuition. Also extends for one year accelerated "bonus" depreciation of business investments in new property and equipment, a tax credit for research and development costs and a tax credit for renewable energy such as wind-generated electricity.
--Unemployment benefits: Extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for one year.
--Cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors: Blocks a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors for one year. The cut is the product of an obsolete 1997 budget formula.
--Social Security payroll tax cut: Allows a 2 percentage point cut in the payroll tax first enacted two years ago to lapse, which restores the payroll tax to 6.2 percent.
--Across-the-board cuts: Delays for two months $109 billion worth of across-the-board spending cuts set to start striking the Pentagon and domestic agencies this week. Cost of $24 billion is divided between spending cuts and new revenues from rules changes on converting traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs.
Republican House leaders voice serious concerns over fiscal bill
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.
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.
lunes, diciembre 31, 2012
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.
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.
Keep reading >>
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
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.
sábado, diciembre 29, 2012
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 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
viernes, diciembre 28, 2012
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
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.
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.
What happens to you if we go over the fiscal cliff
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.
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.
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.
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.
jueves, diciembre 27, 2012
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¨Saturno jugando con sus hijos¨/ Pedro Pablo Oliva
Liborio
A la puerta de la gloria está San Pedro sentado y ve llegar a su lado a un hombre de cierta historia. No consigue hacer memoria y le pregunta con celo: ¿Quién eras allá en el suelo? Era Liborio mi nombre. Has sufrido mucho, hombre, entra, te has ganado el cielo.
Martha Colmenares
Un sitio donde los hechos y sus huellas nos conmueven o cautivan
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