Fiscal Cliff: Grim and Grimmer
EmailThe good news: They finally started talking again.
The bad news: The talks went nowhere. Maybe even backwards.
After a week-long hiatus, talks between senior aides to the president and the speaker of the House resumed this afternoon. White House Legislative Director Rob Nabors met top Boehner aides Mike Summers and Bret Loper, but the meeting concluded with no discernible signs of progress and, if anything, a hardening of positions.
According to sources familiar with the meeting, Nabors reiterated two key White House demands: 1) higher tax rates on the wealthy must be included in any deal; and, 2) a deal must also include a permanent extension of the debt ceiling.
Nabors indicated no willingness to go any further on limiting the growth of entitlement spending, the sources said.
Without further spending cuts, Boehner’s aides made it clear they are unwilling to make concessions on tax rates and a White House proposal that Congress cede some control over raising the nation’s debt ceiling is a non-starter.
And so it goes. One step closer to the fiscal cliff.
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Do your jobs I think that Mitch McConnel and other’s like him should be tested to see if they have lost their barrings he’s too old and should be made to go home people like him have all that he needs but wants it all to take to his grave, I would like to see a picture whereas they would line up greedies like him and make them eat real money or else they’ll be thrown in a tub of snakes make them eat real money until they die.
Posted by: MARSHA | December 6, 2012, 11:28 pm 11:28 pm
Before it’s over, the Middle Class will be taxed to oblivion. Hide and watch.
Posted by: DianaS | December 6, 2012, 11:52 pm 11:52 pm
There are a couple of reasons why these talks are destined to go nowhere besides the fact that the federalists and the republicans want it that way and they are: 1) the federalists mix reasonable tax cutting with a power grab that any House of Representatives, much less one controlled by the republicans, could possibly agree to and 2) the republicans failure to be specific about the kinds of entitlements that they want to cut in exchange for any vaguely identified tax increases.
The whole business merely shows a thinking public what a circus and complete waste of time our government has become.
Posted by: John Locke | December 7, 2012, 12:03 am 12:03 am
Eisenhower, Republican, taxed the highest earners 90% to pay off the war debts and transition us into a peacetime economy with jobs and huge infrastructure projects. country first. Republicans today have absolutely no resemblence to the republicans of the ‘greatest generation’. “Obama’s spending”…pure delusion. Obama only ADDED less than 1 Trillion to the spending and that is a has-been. It’s spent. it was a one time deal, finite, it’s over. This “spending” is ALL what was put in the credit card with bush and the only way to cut it is in collaberation with republicans, which they will not do. So…we obviously have to kick more republicans out until we have a 60% majority in the senate and majority in the house so we can get government functioning again. Democrats are all for cutting spending, but the spending needs to be things like 2 billion of handouts to oil companies BEFORE we throw elderly and handicapped off medicaid. Republicans of today are just so tone deaf…so…let them get kicked out en masse in 2014 midterms. There were two CLEAR ways to handle things, clearly, people voted for Obama to lead his way. Romney did NOT win a single swing state. Not one.
Posted by: TheWomensVote | December 7, 2012, 1:02 am 1:02 am
BTW —-g00gle “did Anonymous save the election from Karl Rove” Anyone familiar with the hacker group Anonymous who takes down government websites, they claim they stopped Rove from stealing the election by crashing the Ohio server and rerouting the vote counting to Tenn firm that is owned by the republican party and the scary thing is— the server DID go down on election night and hte plan WAS to reroute the voting to Tenn but it WAS blocked from doing so. And Rove was adamant that Romney would win Ohio and Romney did not even write a concession speech. ….I am never one for conspiracy theories but there are a ridiculous number of coincidences in this one. ……look it up.
Posted by: TheWomensVote | December 7, 2012, 1:06 am 1:06 am
Fiscal cliff being catastrophic is fear mongering and a figment of the imagination of the press. It will be the only serious jump to make a big dent in the debt and prevent further down grading of US credit rating. The long term future will be far more secure and bright if we ensure a soft landing from the fiscal cliff than if the borrow and spend politicians on both sides make some quick deal with no significant increase in revenues and continuing the increasing level of spending.
Posted by: Girish | December 7, 2012, 6:02 am 6:02 am
“Nabors reiterated two key White House demands: 1) higher tax rates on the wealthy must be included in any deal; and, 2) a deal must also include a permanent extension of the debt ceiling.” – Jonathan Karl
With entrenched ideologue demands like those, an intelligent person would conclude that President Barry wants to go over the fiscal cliff.
What do you think Jonathan?
I say it’s time for the House to ignore the President and do it’s job.
Just pass a responsible bill and let the chips fall where they may.
Posted by: Noz | December 7, 2012, 7:50 am 7:50 am
Obama is like Morsi ( the Muslim Brotherhood) leader in Egypt who is trying to take power away from the courts so they could not control his actions—Morsi gutted the power of the legal system in Egypt!! Obama wants to gut the power of Congress by being able to raise the debt limit(increase spending) without Congressional approval!!! Obama’s attempt to grab power like a dictator is exactly what the Founding Fathers were trying to prevent by creating the three branches of government; providing checks and balances so neither branch can get to much power!!!
Posted by: werallslaves100 | December 7, 2012, 8:37 am 8:37 am
‘Nabors indicated no willingness to go any further on limiting the growth of entitlement spending’ – Now we know…this has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with what is good for the citizens of the united states! Third world – here we come!!!
Posted by: Larry | December 7, 2012, 8:55 am 8:55 am
The cliff is nothing to fear. Obama created it, and the main cuts will be military. So we will simply have to take greater risks with our safety from world threats. We have no choice. We can’t pay for all of this welfare, any other way.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | December 7, 2012, 10:43 am 10:43 am
The republicans are still trying to con the Ameriacn people.
The deficit is 16 trillion dolars, if it was 30 trillion or 100 trillion it’s still a meaningless number.
Companies increase their debt to profit ratio every time they sell stock. The stock they sell is a debt they owe. They still see this as a positive because it shows people want to invest in the company. If they invest that money wisely they will succeed and thrive.
If all there investors sold all the stock at the same time the company is in trouble. This is as likely as the Mayan Apocalypse.
The US government does the same thing but instead of stocks, it sells bonds which increase the national debt. 90% of those bonds are held by Americans and American banks. The rest by foreign banks and investors who want to invest in America.
Again, if all these investors sold all their bonds at the same time the US is in trouble. Also again, this is as likely as the Mayan Apocalypse.
This deficit issue is nothing more than a distraction designed to scare the American people.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 7, 2012, 11:24 am 11:24 am
Sequestration has to take place. There is no deal that can be made.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | December 7, 2012, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
tmferretti | December 7, 2012, 11:24 am —- Didn’t you guys roast Bush for saying deficits don’t matter? I am OK with the higher tax on the rich (although I would go with $500K and up), but no way should there be any talks about the debt ceiling in all of this. I am ready to fall off the cliff, but if the GOP agrees to raise taxes, Obama better drop his BS about the debt ceiling.
Posted by: Commonsenseparty | December 7, 2012, 12:56 pm 12:56 pm
“1) higher tax rates on the wealthy must be included in any deal; and, 2) a deal must also include a permanent extension of the debt ceiling.”
.
1) giving oBama and the DEMOCRATS more taxes ONLY guarantees more spending. 2) why call it a debt ceiling or debt limit… it has not stopped ANYTHING.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | December 7, 2012, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
“1) giving oBama and the DEMOCRATS more taxes ONLY guarantees more spending. 2) why call it a debt ceiling or debt limit… it has not stopped ANYTHING.” It seems that republicans are the biggest spenders…Raising revenue and some cuts. The Bush cuts were meant to be temporary, they nearly destroyed this country during a near depression over a trillion less revenues came in during the job losses of the near depression along with the interest rates on the lost revenues. You folks spend and put on a credit card.
Posted by: Emerald_Sparks | December 7, 2012, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
COMMONSENSEPARTY
II didn’t roast Bush for not worrying about the deficit (as far as I’m concerned, if he thought it was necessary to protect and help America, more power to him). The deficit is a republican issue. We sell bonds to finance or country just as a corporation sells stock to finance its business.
If people in the world think America is a good investment, take advantage of it. Use that investment money to build our country just like stock investments build a business.
The recession didn’t happen because of the deficit, it happened because of the risky investments the financial institutions made, due to de-regulation that collapsed the housing market and increased their lack of trust which stopped people from investing.
Posted by: tmferretti | December 7, 2012, 2:26 pm 2:26 pm