Posted on 12/18/2012 6:56:45 AM PST by cotton1706
House Republicans, discouraged by the pace of negotiations with the White House, will move their own bill that would hike tax rates on income above $1 million, according to several sources familiar with the plans.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told President Barack Obama of his plan last night on a phone call, according to sources.
Boehner will make the argument to House Republicans that tax rates will go up on everyone come Jan. 1. “The question for us is real simple: How do we stop as many of those rate hikes as possible?” Boehner plans to tell House Republicans.
“For weeks, Senate Republicans — and a growing number of you — have been pushing for us to pivot to a ‘Plan B,’” he will say. “I think there’s a better way. But the White House just can’t seem to bring itself to agree to a “balanced” approach, and time is running short. Taxes are going up on everyone on Jan. 1. They’re baked into current law. And we have to stop whatever tax rate increases we can. In the absence of an alternative, as of this morning, a ‘modified Plan B’ is the plan.”
Boehner isn’t pulling out of negotiations with the White House to strike a sweeping $2 trillion agreement, but leadership sources say they hope this move prods the administration to move toward them.
As of Monday evening, both sides seemed close to an agreement. Boehner has moved off his insistence that tax rates not rise on the wealthy, and has offered the president $1 trillion in fresh revenue — unthinkable concessions a year ago.
But Obama and Boehner are still a considerable distance apart on taxes. Obama wants to increase tax rates on income over $400,000. Boehner wants the threshold to be set at $1 million; the House GOP proposal would keep the lower Bush-era rates in place for income brackets below that. In essence, Boehner is seeking $1 trillion in revenue and $1 trillion in cuts — but he doesn’t think the president is willing to get there.
“He talked about a ‘balanced’ approach on the campaign trail,” Boehner intends to say. “What the White House offered yesterday — $1.3 trillion in revenue for only $850 billion in spending cuts — cannot be considered balanced. We’re going to keep the door open in hopes the president can find a way to support a balanced approach.”
I’d rather have taxes go up automatically than have the republican caucus vote to increase taxes.
Plan B: Boehner complains, cries, and wets pants.
So, why not pass a bill that says the rates stay exactly the same as now, ship the bill to Harry Reid, and go the f home?
What is so hard about that?
If the Dem Senate doesn’t act, you blame them for going over the cliff.
Guess that is too hard for no balls Boehner.
could be a brilliant move by Boehner given obama’s growingly apparent strategy to go off the cliff and blame it on the GOP, rather than “negotiate” in good faith
sell it sell it sell it GOP
make your plan easy, a reasonable compromise, a tax on true “millionaires” which GOP MUST note may damage the economy but is what obama demands so obama owns it
sell it day and night to the public
then let Congress go home for Christmas and let obama and Harry Reid sit in the WH with a plan to sign or not, while Mooch flies off to Hawaii without him and leaves him a note to walk the dog
Ubama Lite.
The only place Boehner ought to move to is a nursing home.
All this vote would be is a “test” vote for Bonehead and Cantor.
So they know who to threaten and bribe. No other reason to have this
vote.
Boehner and Obama (and Reid) have been complicit in underming the legislative process. The three oligarchs get together and decide ahead of time what will be, then strong-arm it into law.
No resoponsibility whatsoever is to be placed on the senate, which is of course controlled by the democrats.
The president should not be involved at all in legislation (except to influence the votes of individual members). Obama wants to be both executive and legislator which is extremely dangerous. And Boehner has gone along with him. They’re all working to destroy any resistance.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. However I would add something to the effect of, “without knowing what our budget looks like because the Senate hasn’t put one forward, we have no idea what to tax. So until that budget is in place, all new funding, which includes Obamacare will be put on hold.”
Then go home for Christmas.
I swear the GOP leadership in Congress is gutless, spineless and stupid as hell. They’re going to get the blame no matter the outcome. By agreeing to raise taxes on the wealthy Speaker Crybaby just gives more ammo to the left who will say this proves that the Republicans only wanted tax cuts for the super rich and the duped among our people will eat that up big time. Boehner is a joke of a leader. This is not the time to punish the acheivers. I didn’t think the meltdown of this country would happen so fast.
It’s also a vote to see how many democrats they’ll need to pass should the conservatives be recalcitrant.
What he’s doing is hiding behind the reality of everyone’s taxes going up and the need to stop those that Obama would agree to stop.
It’s a dodge that avoids the genuine issues at the heart of our fiscal ills. It also pretends the Republican philosphy of not raising tax rates is expendable with no downside. Not true. The downside is raising rates hurts the economy and gets LESS revenue not more, and once you flip your own principles you are nothing.
He’s assuming/hoping Obama doesn’t want to go over the cliff, ie doesn’t want everyone’s taxes to go up. But what Obama wants is for people to see their paychecks drastically shrink so he can blame the Republicans for it. At least that’s how I see it. Time will tell but it looks that way. Then Obama can propose a bill to rescind the rate hikes only for those that make under 250 thou/yr just like he demanded all along.
Boehner is under the impression that his position as Speaker makes him a SOMEBODY that Obama would want to negotiate with. Not true. Obama cares only about destroying conservatives, destroying Republicans, and taking this country into his own hands and making it something it was never, ever meant to be. Boehner is NOTHING to Obama. He might as well be Joe the Plumber.
THe whole reason the Bush tax cuts are expiring is because we were too numerically weak in the Congress back then to pass tax cuts that did not expire, and Obama has decided the temporary extensions must end now in order for him to play out his end game.
Taxed Enough Already
Dont want to go over your fiscal cliff? Stop driving the stupid car.
Its called Budget, get one boneheads.
make your plan easy, a reasonable compromise, a tax on true “millionaires” which GOP MUST note may damage the economy but is what obama demands so obama owns it
Exactly. We need to outflank the dims. Yes it will hurt the country to raise any taxes but the focus should be destroying the dims.
Barry wants to go over the cliff because there is no other way to get those defense cuts. So if we give up the “tax the rich” card and the dims don’t agree it just shows what they really want. Defense cuts, wealth redistribution and tax increases on the middle class.
Plan “B” is what?
Boehner gets down on two knees instead of one?
Boehner bends over without holding his knees?
Boehner does both while holding a cigarette between his elbows?
Boehner does all without crying?
Agree. This is test vote for Bonehead and Cantor. So they know who
to threaten if they don’t go along. In addition, it may tell Bonehead how
many rat votes he can expect on the final Grandest of all Bargains.
Bonehead and the DC Party are getting down to the details of screwing
conservatives. If these foolish conservates vote for tax increases now,
how can they not vote for it later.
Yep. Bonehead and Cantor are getting down to the details of screwing conservatives.
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