Posted on 12/20/2012 11:57:09 AM PST by mdittmar
The outlook for a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" by Christmas is increasingly grim, though lawmakers and the White House still have hope for a deficit-reduction compromise by the end of the year.
Republicans will move forward tonight with a vote to pass House Speaker John Boehner's so-called "Plan B option" – an extension of current tax rates for Americans making up to $1 million a year while replacing some pending automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs with other measures.
The step seeks to show Republicans acting to avoid an income tax hike on 99 percent of Americans in 2013, and leverage new pressure on President Obama in the ongoing talks for a broader "cliff" deal.
"Absent a balanced offer from the president, this is our nation's best option and Senate Democrats should take up both of these measures immediately," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said today.
Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, calling it counterproductive and the cuts burdensome for the middle class. If the Senate were to consider the bill to stave off a looming tax hike, Democrats would surely amend it to enact more amicable terms.
"'Plan B'... is a multiday exercise in futility at a time when we do not have the luxury of exercises in futility," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Hey Mr. Carney, how many days has your boss pushed his exercise in futility as the only answer?
Cliff notes with muscles?
This is yet another example of the GOP’s stupidity.
Senator Reid and President Obama have already said they will not pass/sign Boehner’s “Plan B” proposal. SO WHY IS BOEHNER WASTING TIME IN PASSING IT?
“Plan B” also RAISES TAXES.
All appropriation legislation originates in the House.
So, why doesn’t the GOP House simply pass a balanced budget and send it to the Senate?
If Senator Reid and President Obama do not pass/sign it, then keep the government shut down until they do!!!
Sounds like a plan. Have congress pass a legitimate budget and force the Senate to act. Boehner should not trying to make the libs happy. They will never be happy. They need to just do their job and let the chips fall where they may. If the libs refuse to deal, they own the cliff. The GOP is going to get blamed anyway, they might as well do the right thing.
Personally I would submit a bill that made all the Bush tax cuts permanent, cuts the corporate tax to 10% and has real spending cuts that go deep.
Is Ms. Sawyer sober yet?
There never was a serious proposal on the table.
At least, none but the total capitulation of the Republicans.
This is not supposed to be government by royal fiat. For now, there is still supposed to be at least the suggestion of elected representative government, and if the representatives no longer have a voice in the government, then what we have is little different than the tyranny of King George III, which led up to the rebellion and eventual formation of what became known as “the United States of America”.
Time for a “Redeclaration of Independence”, and a rededication of the principles embodied in the US Constitution.
If that means formation of a separate nation, then so be it. Those citizens who are fed up with the way this bunch of clowns is handling the business of governance, are invited to come to the part of the country designated on the electoral maps as “red” America, and the followers of the cult of The Won, should remove themselves to the parts of the electoral map designated as “blue” America, where they shall be in the majority already. And reunited with like-minded people.
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