Speaker John Boehner suffers "fiscal-cliff" regret...

Speaker John Boehner should feel bad. Obama and democrats made a fool of him and Republicans...

Via The Hill:

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is sharing his regrets about his "fiscal-cliff" strategy, less than a month after the House bitterly swallowed a last-minute deal hatched in the Senate.

In a private speech to the Ripon Society on Tuesday, Boehner said that he should have taken a different course after the November election by immediately demanding that the Senate produce a bill to avert the worst parts of a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that were due to hit on Jan. 1.

Instead, Boehner delivered a formal speech at the Capitol on the day after President Obama won a second term, in which he offered a major Republican concession – new tax revenue as part of a broader fiscal deal.

Asinine: Senate voted on 'fiscal cliff' deal 3 minutes after receiving it...

Nothing ever goes well when they pass a bill without reading it.  Obamacare comes to mind. Were Senate Republicans drunk?

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Senate voted 89-8 to approve legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff despite having only 3 minutes to read the 154-page bill and budget score.

Multiple Senate sources have confirmed to CNSNews.com that senators received the bill at approximately 1:36 AM on Jan. 1, 2013 – a mere three minutes before they voted to approve it at 1:39 AM.

The bill is 154-pages and includes several provisions that are unrelated to the fiscal cliff, including repealing a section of ObamaCare, extending the wind-energy tax credit, and a rum tax subsidy deal for Puerto Rican rum makers.

Keep on reading…

Mammoth Cave: GOP Leades take Cave to a Whole New Level...

Our feckless leaders have caved again. Is it third party time?

Via Washington Post:

Congress approved a plan to end Washington’s long drama over the “fiscal cliff” late Tuesday after House Republicans surrendered to President Obama’s demand to let taxes rise on the nation’s richest households.

The House voted 257 to 167 to send the measure to Obama for his signature; the vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) and most other top GOP leaders took no public position on the measure and offered no public comment before the 10:45 p.m. vote. Boehner declined even to deliver his usual closing argument, leaving House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) to defend the measure as the “largest tax cut in American history.”

The bill will indeed shield millions of middle-class taxpayers from tax increases set to take effect this month. But it also will let rates rise on wages and investment profits for households pulling in more than $450,000 a year, marking the first time in more than two decades that a broad tax increase has been approved with GOP support.

The measure also will keep benefits flowing to 2 million unemployed workers on the verge of losing their federal checks. And it will delay for two months automatic cuts to the Pentagon and other agencies that had been set to take effect Wednesday.

Many economists had warned that the scheduled tax increases and spending cuts would have plunged the economy back into recession.

Conservatives complained bitterly that the legislation would raise taxes without making any significant cuts in government spending. ...

Shameful: Senate fiscal cliff deal raises deficit $4 trillion over 10 years...

It's time to primary Senate minority Leader Mitch McConnell for agreeing to this pig of a bill...

New York (CNNMoney) – The fiscal cliff deal passed by the Senate Tuesday morning would increase deficits over the next decade by close to $4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But that’s relative to where deficits would otherwise be if Congress were to let all the Bush tax cuts expire and keep much if not all of the other tax hikes and spending cuts under the fiscal cliff in place. Under that scenario, only $2.88 trillion would be added to the debt over the next decade.

Rand Paul on Senate Fiscal Cliff Deal: "You can say, “I stuck it to the rich people.”"

“Mark my word, you’ll raise tax rates and you feel good because you went out there and you got those rich people. You said you were. You campaigned against rich people. And you got enough envy whipped up in the country. And you’re going to stick it to those rich people. But guess what? You may not get any more revenue. You may not get anymore economic growth. But you can say, “I stuck it to the rich people.”"

McConnell and Senate Republicans Cave on Fiscal Cliff

 (Drudge)

Will House Republicans fold like a cheap suit too? 

Via Breitbart: 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts.

When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush increased taxes in return for spending cuts—cuts that never ultimately came—they did so at ratios of 3:1 and 2:1.

Dingy Harry Reid gives up on "fiscal cliff" talks?

Harry Reid's heart wasn't in it anyway. Voters voted for higher taxes when they re-elected Obama. They just didn't think they would be the ones paying them. I say let's teach them a hard lesson. Fiscal cliff diving anyone?

Via WaPo:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has appealed directly to Vice President Biden to try to break an impasse in negotiations to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” as Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) steps back from talks.

On the Senate floor just after 2 p.m., McConnell said he had delivered Senate Democrats an offer at 7 p.m. Saturday, and had yet to hear back from them with a potential counter-offer. In hopes of reaching a last-minute deal, McConnell said he had reached out to Biden. “I was here all day yesterday,” McConnell noted as he spoke.

Obama calls first meeting with congressional leaders since Nov. 16, fails to offer any new "fiscal cliff" ideas...

The liberal messiah pushed his old plan which has already been  rejected by Republicans...

Via FOX News:

If Americans were looking to Washington on Friday to unveil a bold new solution for averting the fiscal crisis, they didn't get it.

President Obama, at a last-ditch meeting with congressional leaders just days before sweeping tax hikes take effect, presented a recycled version of the scaled-back proposal he pitched last week.
There was little sign of a breakthrough, as lawmakers left shortly after 4 p.m. Stocks on Wall Street dove at the close of the day, amid fears that the tax increases along with steep spending cuts will hit Jan. 1.

According to one source familiar with the White House meeting, Obama pushed lawmakers to either bring his proposal for a scaled-down bill to a vote or put forward a counterproposal of their own. 

As she returned to Capitol Hill, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested Obama is trying to get the Senate to act first. "I think it moved us forward," she said of the meeting, without offering specifics about what was discussed. Keep on reading...

Prepare for "fiscal cliff" diving...

There is no question we are going over the fiscal cliff. However, this is the most overblown event since the Y2K hype. It will take months for the effect to seriously damage the economy. On the other hand, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the 2% payroll tax cut will hit paychecks in January. This is the most serious threat to family budgets and the economy.

Via Politico:

Nearly all the major players in the fiscal cliff negotiations are starting to agree on one thing: A deal is virtually impossible before the New Year.

Unlike the bank bailout in 2008, the tax deal in 2010 and the debt ceiling in 2011, the Senate almost certainly won’t swoop in and help sidestep a potential economic calamity, senior officials in both parties predicted on Wednesday.

With the country teetering on this fiscal cliff of deep spending cuts and sharp tax hikes, the philosophical differences, the shortened timetable and the political dynamics appear to be insurmountable hurdles for a bipartisan deal by New Year’s Day.

Hopes of a grand-bargain — to shave trillions of dollars off the deficit by cutting entitlement programs and raising revenue — are shattered. House Republicans already failed to pass their “Plan B” proposal. And now aides and senators say the White House’s smaller, fall-back plan floated last week is a non-starter among Republicans in Senate — much less the House.

On top of that, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday that the nation would hit the debt limit on Dec. 31, and would then have to take “extraordinary measures” to avoid exhausting the government’s borrowing limit in the New Year.

Half of Americans think "fiscal cliff" deal unlikely...

Rea;ism set in... Via Gallop:

Obama's "fiscal cliff" plan actually increases spending by $880 billion

Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have analyzed Obama's "fiscal cliff" plan. It's not helpful...

Via Weekly Standard:

Spending will increase 55 percent over the next decade, if President Barack Obama’s budget plan goes into effect. The finding comes from the Republican-side of the Senate Budget Committee, which notes that Obama’s “Proposal Would Spend $880 Billion Over Already Projected Increases.”

Here’s a chart, detailing how Obama’s plan would bring spending from $3.62 trillion in 2013 to $5.63 trillion in 2022.

“The President’s last fiscal cliff offer once again increased spending rather than reducing it,” writes the minority-side of the Senate Budget Committee. “His plan does claim $800 billion in spending reductions over ten years, but these claims are more than offset by new spending increases: increasing spending above BCA limits ($1,200 billion); paying for the doc fix ($400 billion); new transportation stimulus spending ($50 billion), and; a one-year extension of unemployment insurance ($30 billion).  After subtracting the president’s savings from his spending increases, over the next 10 years the President’s proposal actually spends $880 billion more – $44.368 trillion versus $43.488 trillion – than currently projected spending levels.  In the next two years alone, the President’s plan would spend $255 billion over current projected spending levels ($156 billion higher in FY13 and $99 billion higher in FY14). Overall, spending would increase 55% under the President’s plan, from $3.6 trillion in FY13 to $ 5.6 trillion in FY22.”

Keep on reading…

How Obama played Boehner...

A good negotiator or poker player never shows his cards until the time is right. Speaker Boehner fails to grasp that point. Obama reportedly offered "nothing" for Boehner's upfront $800 million in revenue.

From behind the NYT's pay-wall via Power Line:

Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn’t reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault.

At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, “I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?”

“You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.”

Harry Reid promises to do nothing on fiscal cliff...

Least shocking story of the day...

Via Weekly Standard:

Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, made his “fiscal cliff” position clear in a press conference today. “We are not going to do anything,” said Reid.

Reid added, “We are not taking up anything they are working on over there.”
The top Democrat in the Senate was explaining his inaction on the House plan, the proposal put forward by Republican John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Boehner’s plan is being referred to as ‘Plan B.’

Keep on reading…

Democrats diss "Plan B"

Let's go over the cliff. Democrats deserve it...

Via Roll Call:

The White House and congressional Democrats swiftly panned Speaker John A. Boehner’s plan to push legislation in the House that would let tax rates rise only for millionaires, the Ohio Republican’s “plan B” to avert the fiscal cliff.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying the president remains willing to work with Republicans to reach a bipartisan solution to the fiscal cliff and he is “hopeful” they will.

The president, however, “is not willing to accept a deal that doesn’t ask enough of the very wealthiest in taxes and instead shifts the burden to the middle class and seniors,” Carney said. “The Speaker’s ‘Plan B’ approach doesn’t meet this test because it can’t pass the Senate and therefore will not protect middle class families, and does little to address our fiscal challenges with zero spending cuts.”

I still think the House should pass Simpson-Bowles. It contains less in tax increases and much more in spending cuts than anything Boehner  is likely to negotiate with Obama. Obama and Democrats could refuse to pass it, but since it was proposed by a bipartisan commission Obama cre4ated. That would throw the blame squarely on Obama and democrats.

Speaker John Boehner offers millionaire tax increase in 'fiscal cliff' negotiation...

Cave? Via Politico:

Speaker John Boehner has proposed allowing tax rates to rise for the wealthiest Americans if President Barack Obama agrees to major entitlement cuts, according to several sources close to the talks. It is the first time Boehner has offered any boost in marginal tax rates for any income group, and it would represent a major concession for the Ohio Republican. Boehner suggested hiking the Bush-era tax rates for top wage earners, including those with annual incomes of $1 million or more annually, beginning Jan. 1, two sources said.

Fiscal Standoff...

There doesn't seem to be any movement from Boehner's and Obama's White House meeting. Time is quickly running out. 

WASHINGTON (AP) - A year-end deadline approaching, negotiations to avoid an economy-rattling "fiscal cliff" appeared at a standstill Monday. Republicans pressed President Barack Obama to name specific spending cuts he will support, while the White House insisted the GOP agree explicitly to raise tax rates on upper incomes.

At a campaign-style event in Michigan, Obama warned his listeners their taxes will rise on Jan. 1 without action by the Congress. "That's a hit you can't afford to take," he declared.

He spoke one day after meeting privately at the White House with House Speaker John Boehner, whose office expressed frustration with the talks to date.

"We continue to wait for the president to identify the spending cuts he's willing to make as part of the 'balanced' approach he promised the American people,'" said a written statement from the Ohio Republican's office. Keep on reading...

Obama is hard at work today trying desperately to avoid the "fiscal cliff"

Just kidding. He is playing golf again...

Pres. Obama getting in a round of golf today at Andrews.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 8, 2012

VP Joe Biden on "Fiscal Cliff": ' The upside is even bigger than the downside,”

Really?

Via Weekly Standard:

In remarks at a diner in Arlington, Virginia, Vice President Joe Biden said that the “upside” of going down the so-called fiscal cliff “is even bigger than the downside.” Biden attributed these thoughts to “business leaders.”

Via the pool reporter present at today’s event:

“The downside of going down this cliff…is real. But the upside is even bigger than the downside,” Mr. Biden said he’s been hearing from business leaders.
“This is no time to add any additional burden for middle class people.”

Nancy Pelosi: Republicans can cave on taxes or "We go over the cliff.”

I say "giddy up."

Via CBS News:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi doubled down today on a White House pledge to go over the so-called “fiscal cliff” in the absence of a deal that includes tax hikes for the wealthy, telling reporters that “If there’s no agreement, we go over the cliff.”

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the White House is”absolutely” prepared to go over “cliff” should negotiations fail to yield a deal ends Bush-era cuts for household incomes above $250,000 per year.

“There is no prospect [for] an agreement that doesn’t involve rates going up on the top two percent of the wealthiest Americans,” Geithner told CNBC. “What we need to see is have them acknowledge that they are prepared to see rates go up. And if they are willing to accept that, and commit to that as part of an agreement, then we think we can do something really good for the American economy.”

Asked about the statement in a press conference today, Pelosi said she saw Geithner’s comment not as a threat but as a “statement of fact.”

“I saw it as a statement of fact. It’s not a threat, it’s a prediction,” Pelosi said. “If there is no agreement, then the fiscal cliff has to be dealt with… Let’s hope that we can have an agreement.”

Grover Norquist believes Obama will drive us off the "fiscal cliff"

 

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, says expectations for a deal anytime soon are likely to prove overly optimistic.

"I didn't think this was case three weeks ago but do now think [President] Obama has decided to drive country over the fiscal cliff and blame the Republicans," Norquist tells me.

Furthermore, Norquist says the consensus view that the public posturing is just "theater" while real progress is happening behind closed doors is simply false.