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Obama, Boehner meet on "fiscal cliff"
Updated 7:20 p.m. ET
As the "fiscal cliff" negotiations have seemed to hit a stalemate, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met for 50 minutes at the White House this afternoon, their third in-person meeting on the issue and their first since Sunday.
Boehner: "Spending is the problem"
Obama: Resistance to raising taxes "a religion" to GOP
"The President and Speaker had a frank meeting in the oval office tonight," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement. "There will be no further readout of the meeting, but lines of communication remain open."
Before their meeting, Boehner forcefully argued that the discussion over the "fiscal cliff" shouldn't be about raising taxes but cutting spending and that is what's holding up any prospects of a deal.
"It's clear the president is just not serious about cutting spending. But spending is the problem," Boehner said at a news conference earlier today. "The president wants to pretend spending isn't the problem. That's why we don't have an agreement."
The president later told Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO that he's "hopeful that we can get this resolved. It shouldn't be hard to get resolved."
Obama: Resistance to raising taxes "a religion" to GOP
"I'm willing to do a lot more cuts in spending, we also need to pair it up with a little revenue. ... Couple two dollars of spending cuts for one dollar of revenue," he continued.
Republicans are demanding that President Obama agree to more spending cuts. The main components of the president's latest offer includes $600 billion in cuts with $1.4 trillion in tax increases. The Republican offer, meanwhile, is the opposite. It includes $800 billion in revenue increases and $1.4 trillion in spending cuts.
Boehner also said criticized the president's deal for including spending proposals. "[T]hey've put some spending cuts on the table, [but] unfortunately the new stimulus spending they want almost out strips all of the spending cuts that they have outlined," he said.
Mr. Obama said he understands "they have a philosophical objection; on the other hand, we're willing to make some really tough decisions about spending cuts."
"My sense is, it's less and issue of trust; I think that this has more to do with politics. You know, I think the idea of not raising taxes has become sort of a religion for a lot of members of the Republican Party.
"I think Speaker Boehner has a contentious caucus, as his caucus is tough on him sometimes, and so he's constantly... doesn't want to look like he's giving in to me somehow, because that might hurt him in his own caucus. There are real philosophical differences on issues," the president told WCCO.
The president appears to be winning the public relations debate as polls have consistently shown that Republicans will bear the brunt of the blame if no deal is reached on the "fiscal cliff."
While the president says the election results show that the public is on his side to increase taxes on the wealthy, Boehner disputes that sentiment. "[T]he election wasn't a mandate to raise taxes on small businesses, it was a mandate for both parties to work together," he said.
When pressed by CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes about his resistant to raising the tax rate on the wealthy, Boehner replied: "Raising tax rates will hurt small businesses at a time when we're expecting small businesses to be the engine of job creation in America."
While Boehner continues to resist tax increases, rank-and-file Republicans are publicly admitting that tax rates, at least on top earners, are likely to increase. The president will "get his wish," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said today on "CBS This Morning."
More than a half-dozen Senate Republicans have now said publicly their party does not have the leverage or public opinion on their side on this issue, and that they should just give in and move on, Cordes reports. But House Republicans are more insistent, and even if Speaker Boehner does compromise in the end, he needs to show his conference he held out as long as possible.
Pelosi to GOP: "Let's get real" on "fiscal cliff"
Prior to Boehner's remarks, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sharply criticized the Republican latest counter-proposal saying it "had more signatures than ideas."
"It had, like, one number," Pelosi said on its lack of specifics.
On the debate over how to deal with entitlement spending, the president has indicated a willingness to raise the eligibility age of Medicare from 65 to 67 but Pelosi once again laid down different boundaries. "Don't even think about raising the Medicare age," she said.
Carney defends WH on "fiscal cliff" spending cuts
Spending is also not the only area Boehner would like to see the president budge. He wants the president to forgo his demand that the debt ceiling be lifted. But White House spokesperson Jay Carney said the U.S. needs to pay its debts.
"Congress controls the purse strings," Carney said. "It's about paying bills that Congress incurred."
Pelosi said a deal must be reached in the next couple of days or by next week for the "fiscal cliff" to be averted before Jan 1.
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Jeb was just as bad in Florida, running up an additional %7 BILLION in long term debt he added after eight years as Governor.
Day after day, Boehner continues to point the finger at the President and claims he's wrong with his balance of cuts and tax increases.
What is Boehner basing that on? What the American public wants? Does Boehner or anyone in the GOP recognize that their plan and candidate lost the election running on that plan? It was voted down. The President's plan was voted up, which gives the high ground to the President.
But hey, looking across the landscape of American politics, doing what the public votes for in a majority doesn't stop the GOP from pushing forward with their agenda. Look at the Republican Governors using every dirty trick in the books to slam through legislation that the majority votes against.
The GOP is a cancer that needs to be exorcized. Let's hope we can cut out the rotten part of the GOP before it destroys what's left of the US.
As far as Boehner goes, forget about it. He's just using whatever excuses he can come up with to do nothing. It's not that he doesn't know taxes will have to be increased, he just doesn't want to be the Republican that soapboxes for the others to do it. He knows the other GOP members of Congress will crucify him if he does what the public and the President want. So instead of doing what's right by the country, he's going to through the country under the bus and go over the cliff. It will save Boehner's job though, in his own mind.
Name your spending cuts. Let's get this deal done. What (specifically) do you want to cut?
its obvious that the denocrats used their hundreds of billions to determine that most black kids would be suckered into voting for obama even though he's a democrat.
they never let people rest
Representative Paul Ryan and his budgetary ideas were soundly rejected by the 2012 electorate and the Republican House of Representatives must heed to the voice of the nation. Otherwise Republicans are destined to loose the Presidency every four years till Texas turns blue and then the Presidency will be out of the reach of the Republicans for a very long time to come!
If the Republicans want to wash their hands off the "Makers & Takers" philosophy of Mitt Romney and Representative Paul Ryan then the Fiscal Cliff is their chance to support not cutting into Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and keep the masses in the nation from going permanently in the Democratic camp.
If Republicans want to defeat the 47% philosophy of Mitt Romney and Representative Paul Ryan forever and join the nation in the quest to support the middle class thus ending the class warfare which Republicans are loosing, 2012 election being their latest proof Republicans should come to their senses and give up their support of Representative Paul Ryan's agenda of cutting into Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Representative Paul Ryan's budgetary philosophy has met its fate at the polls this November and Republicans must start anew supporting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid rather than cutting them.
If House Republicans do not support and pass the Senate bill supporting cutting taxes on the 98% people and 97% small businesses instead let the nation fall off the Fiscal Cliff for the sake of saving the top 2% tax breaks then the nation will punish the House Republicans in 2014 and they will loose the only branch of Congress they now hold.
Republicans ought to learn from the adage that "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush". A Republican House is better than dreaming a defeated Obama or a red Senate in the near future. Remember Obama now in 2013 is only five short in Senate votes to thwarting a Republican filibuster.
So let the 2012 election results be a forewarning to any Republican scheme to cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to the bone and then expecting to win the ONLY voters thay are left with i.e. the White elderly voters!
From hereon let it be a lesson to all aspiring Republican Presidential candidates that the Demographic clock is ticking and it does not favor the Republicans if Texas turns blue!! There are only so many election cycles before the State of Texas may turn blue unless Republicans change their ways and tax the 2% rich at Clinton rates and avoid cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid!!
Take this from a life long Democrat who voted twice for Ronald Reagan and was not a very proud Reagan Democrat but still loved Reagan. I have been a proud Texan since 1990 and can vouch that Texas is on its way to becoming a blue state unless Republicans discover another Reagan among themselves which is difficult in the Ted Cruz and TEA Party era!!
The US GDP for 2011 and 2012 is about $15.5T. It is currently growing very slowly, less than 2% per year.
Total government spending is about $3.7T, or about 24% of GDP
Total government revenues are about $2.4T, or about 15.5% of GDP
HISTORICAL AVERAGE revenues over the last 60 years have been 20% of GDP.
Therefore, to balance the budget in comprehensive way should look like raising revenue back to about 20% of GDP, and cutting spending to about 20% of GDP. Which would look like:
Raising taxes by $700B per year
Cutting spending by $600B per year
Neither side is proposing anything CLOSE to this, however. ALREADY AGREED UPON spending cut levels are about $200B per year. Obama is proposing to increase this by $60B (to $260B) and raising revenues $140B, not quite a 2 to 1 cuts to taxes proposal,. Republicans are proposing ADDITIONAL cuts of $140B and revenues of only $80B - $340B in cuts to $80 in revenues, or 4.25 to 1 cuts to taxes proposal.
But look above again - the problem is more than 50% REVENUE related. Therefore it should be obvious that Obama is already going TOO FAR with cuts vs. tax increases, especially as he is offering to make all tax cuts on the bottom 98% "permanent". And he is willing to go EVEN FARTHER with cuts if Republicans would agree to a comprehensive deal including appropriate tax increases on the wealthy.
And in reality, if we dealt with our debt crisis like a real crisis (which it is) we should temporarily raise taxes AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE until we pay down enough of the debt. Something like an additional 5% of GDP surcharge on those that can afford to pay, and then as the debt begins declining all interest payments "savings" are automatically applied to debt reduction as well (a debt snowball) and we start dropping the surcharge as the debt decreases. When it is low enough that it is stable (surpluses in good years, small deficits in bad ones) the tax surcharges can be dropped completely.
Bottom line - Obama is much closer to spot on, and Republicans are crazy. You can't solve the problem with just cuts, and you can't keep the economy growing and address core services like education and the programs that tens of millions rely on every day just to eat if you try to cut your way to a balance.
I most assuredly concur. Boehner & Co. are a bunch of crazy b-tc--, hospitalization should be mandatory.