Posted on 12/20/2012 1:45:02 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It sounds like Speaker Boehner is angling to push the fiscal-cliff onus back onto Senate Democrats and the president before the holidays hit with his Plan-B gambit, especially now in the light that the Senate is taking off until the Thursday after Christmas — which will leave a mere five days to cobble together any type of deal upon their return. The big question, of course, was whether or not the move would be at all worthwhile, since there are plenty of conservatives expressing their vociferous opposition to said plan and getting it through the House is by no means a given.
At a press conference Thursday, however, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor insisted that they have the votes they need and are getting ready to make moves, via Politico:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said unequivocally Thursday that Speaker John Boehner’s fiscal cliff fallback plan would pass the lower chamber later in the day — at the same time his party’s leadership was working privately to shore up support.
The so-called Plan B Boehner is pushing would extend tax rates for income below $1 million but force families making over that threshold to pay Clinton-era rates of nearly 40 percent. Late Wednesday night, Republican leaders incorporated a proposal to spare the Pentagon from looming spending cuts and shift the reductions to other agencies.
Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said the plan is the “nation’s best option.”
“Senate Democrats should take up these measures immediately,” Cantor said in the Capitol. “And the president has a decision to make, he can support these measures, or be responsible for reckless spending and the largest tax hike in American history.”
If the House does pass their own version of a fiscal-cliff package, then perhaps that will get the Democrats to finally come forward with more spending cuts, or the GOP might at least presumably have better leverage for pinning an over-the-cliff scenario on the Democrats — but of course, the Senate leader is having none of that. Via The Hill:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday the Senate will not vote on Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) “Plan B” to extend tax rates for family income below $1 million. …
“We are not taking up any of the things that they’re working on over there now,” Reid told reporters. “It’s very, very, very unfortunate the Republicans have wasted an entire week on a number of pointless political stunts.”
“The bill has no future, if they don’t know it now, tell them what I said,” he added.
“The Senate bill is the only one that will be signed into law. We could protect middle-class families tomorrow,” Reid said. “The Speaker refuses to bring our bill to the floor because it would pass.”
Uhm, is he referring to the Senate bill that raises taxes on families making more than $250,000/year as the only one that can or should pass the House? What is he talking about? We’re debating right now whether Plan B with its rate hikes on millionaires can even pass the House, let alone President Obama’s no-compromising-on-taxes-for-this-guy proposal. Stop the madness:
“If all you do is whack the so-called rich, you only get enough money about a week of government. So let’s be clear about something: he wants to soak everybody. That’s the only way to do it. And that is exactly what he gets if we do nothing. If that wasn’t obvious before this week, it should be perfectly obvious now.“Here we are less than a week before Christmas, and what’s this President doing?
“What’s his quarterback here in the Senate, the Majority Leader doing?
“They’ve been playing Lucy and the Football with the American people for months. They’ve said no to every single proposal that’s been offered to avoid this tax hike — including their own. They’re running out the clock. Moving the goal posts. Sitting on their hands. They aren’t doing anything.
“Well I say ‘Enough’. Enough. The time for games is over.
“This President may want to soak the American people to fund his vision of a social welfare state. But we’re not going to let him do it.
Put it to the House, then the Senate. If they vote it down, it’s on them.
Boehner and Cantor are not serious about reducing spending or about keeping taxes from going even higher.
This is all just a charade. The GOP is going to cave anyway (after a fiscal cliff) and the GOP (along with Bush) is going to get the blame for all the economic problems of the next four years.
The GOP has ZERO credibility on spending, deficits, and taxes (that was wasted during 2000-2006).
It is time to SMASH the GOP and send it to the ash heap of history.
Reid said he wont allow it to be voted on, but that is beside the point.
This drama is for the clueless masses.
Its drama time H/S repubs, let go the tears on TV ‘for the Americans being held tax hostage by Obama’.
Well, why are they passing the bill tonite then?
They're trying to protect as many from this socialist Democratic regime as possible.
The only thing I agree with is that Cantor is a #2
yes, maybe you do have the votes but we the people do not want plan B
The Senate has already adjorned for Christmas. This bill is going nowhere.
The Republic cannot be saved until and unless the Marxist b*st*rd cheerleaders in the enemedia are fully discredited. Anything which is a step in that direction is progress.
Idiots who think "those rich white bastards" are going to be paying, without ultimately passing the costs on to the Taxpayer and Consumer, are proliferating and expanding with illegals, inner-city-tribal-parasites, and those indoctrinated in the Publik Skoolz......we are generations away from returning (if EVER), to a responsible population.
Pass it, and let Dingy Harry make good on his threat to refuse to do anything. If he backs down and it passes, let The Won make good on his threat and veto it. If you play chicken, sometimes you crash.
I said months ago, pass a bill and send it over to the Senate. Put them on the record...pass it, pass your own bill and go to conference or simply ignore it which is what Weed, er Reid, intends to do. Then just keep hitting them over the head with it. There is nothing in the constitution that says the House has to get the approval of the president before doing a bill. His excellency could have offered a bill to be presented by Pelousy’s caucus but decided not to do that because it would have pinned the POS down. No, he prefers secret meetings...what a joke. And the bigger joke is bonehead went along with that charade.
It’s pretty obvious the folks who worked up this particular game plan are seeking to have Democrats vote against a tax increase.
Whenever tax rates change in this country, the changes are named after the president in office at the time.
Therefore, we have the Reagan tax cuts, the Kennedy tax cuts, and the Bush tax cuts, etc. So, if the current president allows the Bush tax cuts to expire, there will be a corresponding tax increase which will be known as the Obama tax increase.
Anyone who thinks Obama and the MSM can prevent this is as delusional about Obama’s superior powers as Obama and the MSM themselves are.
Half the people in America don’t know who George Washington was, let alone who the Speaker of the House or the House Majority Leader are. When Americans come home angry after seeing their newly depleted post-fiscal-cliff paychecks, they won’t be thinking about obscure individuals in Congress, they’ll be thinking about the most powerful man in Washington whose face will continue to be plastered across their television screens daily for the next four years. And they won’t be happy.
Harry Reid will do what he has done for four years, and not allow the senate to even consider it. And then he will go right back and blame the Republicans for “not doing anything.”
Just heard 2 conservative congress critters in the radio saying even plan b doesn’t cut anything so they will be voting no.
Just heard 2 conservative congress critters in the radio saying even plan b doesn’t cut anything so they will be voting no.
“Voting for a tax increase?????”
Taxes are going to increase anyway. There is literally nothing the Pubs can do about it. That’s why the Rats can sit back and refuse any deals. After the rates have gone up for everybody, the Pubs will have to either vote for the Rat plan, or be the party that increased taxes on 98% of Americans for the sake of “the rich”. Then the Rats will be seen as the party of lower taxes for ordinary Americans. Boehner is haplessly trying to avoid that, but the Rats know they have no reason to deal.
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