Fiscal cliff action to come Sunday … maybe
Harry Reid returns to his office Friday after White House meeting (The New York Times/T.J. Kirkpatrick)
The United States Senate has the ball in its hands.
This afternoon’s White House fiscal cliff summit appears to have generated some movement toward a deal, with just more than 72 hours to go. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both took the floor afterwards in an unusually conciliatory manner, pledging to work with their staffs to come up with a plan that can pass both Houses of Congress. Reid said “we’ll see what we can come up with.” McConnell said he was “hopeful and confident” that both sides will have a deal to take to their conferences shortly after 2 p.m. on Sunday. The words were noncommittal, but the tone was a vast improvement over the deep freeze of recent days.
That would likely be a short-term deal. President Barack Obama did not present a new plan at the meeting — a fact that, once leaked, caused a stock market dip — and told reporters this evening that he was “modestly optimistic:”
I’m optimistic we may be able to reach an agreement that can pass both houses in time. Sens. Reid and McConnell are working on such an agreement as we speak. If an agreement isn’t reached in time between Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell I will urge Sen. Reid to bring to the floor a basic package for an up-or-down vote. … The American people are watching what we do here. Obviously their patience is already thin. This is déjà vu all over again.
House Speaker John Boehner also showed some wiggle room here. Democrats’ primary fear is that they go out on a limb on taxes and spending, and then the House does not bother to take it up. Boehner’s failure to whip votes on his “Plan B” did not inspire confidence across the hall. But with help from Democrats, Boehner can shepherd something to passage — it just might not be what the conservative base of his caucus likes. Here’s what a Boehner aide had to say after the White House meeting:
The Speaker told the President that if the Senate amends the House-passed legislation and sends back a plan, the House will consider it – either by accepting or amending. The group agreed that the next step should be the Senate taking bipartisan action.
This is a significant signal to the Senate that any Reid-McConnell accord would make it to the House floor. The details, as always, remain up in the air.
- By Daniel Malloy, Political Insider
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
407 comments Add your comment
Shine
December 28th, 2012
9:56 pm
The French saved us from King George or we’d still be speaking “English”.
Roosevelt raised taxes to defeat the Nazis.
Eisenhower raised taxes to fight teh commies.
Reagan and the Bushs’ charged the Cold War, Desert Strom, and The Iraq War.
When you kooks gonna realize that has to be paid for?
td
December 28th, 2012
9:56 pm
Shine
December 28th, 2012
9:49 pm
Get Real, lay off the kook koolaid and and nut party worship and come back to reality.
Yall lost the election. It was an arse whooping. Quit whining.
You are the one that does not get it. Just because the Dems won the Presidency does not mean Obama gets to dictate to a House that the voters gave control to the Republicans.
Voter
December 28th, 2012
9:56 pm
@catlady – lol, I hear ya.
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:01 pm
Who’s dictating? The taxes go up for everybody in 4 days. That’s what the House proposed to happen and the House is repsonsible for everybody’s taxes going up.
the Bush tax cuts were just like the payroll tax cuts anyway. they were supposed to be temporary when passed. republicans dont keep their agreements.
Voter
December 28th, 2012
10:01 pm
@Shine – “The French saved us from King George or we’d still be speaking “English”.
Roosevelt raised taxes to defeat the Nazis.
Eisenhower raised taxes to fight teh commies.
Reagan and the Bushs’ charged the Cold War, Desert Strom, and The Iraq War.”
Really? I thought the French helped us, I kind of remember in the history books those colonists putting down their pitch forks and picking up arms against the British. Wait a second, the NAZI’s, Korean’s and others. Was that because of the military? Hmmmm?
td
December 28th, 2012
10:03 pm
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:01 pm
Who’s dictating? The taxes go up for everybody in 4 days. That’s what the House proposed to happen and the House is repsonsible for everybody’s taxes going up.
Then what are you gripping about. You are on SS so it will not effect you.
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:03 pm
Who’s dictating? The House voted and passed letting the tax cuts expire next year. the Bush tax cuts were supposed to be like the payroll tax cuts anyway….temporary. Republicans dont honor their agreements or paleface speak with forked tongue if you prefer.
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:05 pm
It wont effect me? Amazing how kooks know all of one’s finances. What day will I file oh great wizard?
catlady
December 28th, 2012
10:06 pm
Voter: I was talking about kids who lose a parent, yes. Why would that child deserve years of payments and yet kids of parents who are divorced or who have a parent who disappeared–shouldn’t THEY get payments, too? And the kids at school who are handicapped. Why do they bring in $600 or more per month just because they are disabled? Do other 3, 4, 5, 6 year olds who are not handicapped bring in that kind of money each month? With some families it truly is a racket.
Let’s take away the entitlement of the mortgage deduction. That is welfare. Let’s take the drug and alcohol addicted’s monthly “disability” payments. It is nuts to reward that behavior.
I could go on and on, but I have probably angered enough people by my suggestions above. Everyone thinks THEY DESERVE it. Meanwhile, back in the real world…
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:09 pm
Hmmmmm…I kinda remember the French cannon fire off the coast in History books. Maybe I imagined it all.
Yes,,,,hmmmmm… the military…not 700 billion worth and taxes raised tpo pay for said military and unfunded warring.
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:10 pm
Lets sales tax stock and bond and commodity purhcases (trades? bwah ha ha) and balance the budget in no time at all.
td
December 28th, 2012
10:15 pm
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:09 pm
Defense spending as a % of GDP has decreased steadily since 1947. We are paying less of our national treasure today then we did when you were a child.
Get Real
December 28th, 2012
10:18 pm
Shine….I fully acknowledge Obama won the election. It was a true and sad wake up call for what this country has become for the reasons I cited. Does the amount of debt the US faces bother you in the slightest? Raising taxes on the top 2% does nothing to reduce the debt. Simpson-Bowles recommended 3 to 1 spending cuts to tax increases. Obama can’t even get it to 1 to 1 and that is over 10 years, this country has a spending problem and unfortunately the large majority of government freebie recipients could care less….
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:21 pm
Nobody but kooks and loons uses that compared to GDP horsecrap. If rich people did that they would spend just for the hell of it (or so they party members can get them goody bloated contracts) like the US does on the military budget.
Cherokee
December 28th, 2012
10:23 pm
Go get ‘em shine. Soon they will be talking about how much holier they are than the rest of us too.
I wonder why cons never specify which cuts they want to make, and how that should be sold to the American public. Or why austerity – being implemented to such disastrous results in Europe – would for some reason work better in America?
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:27 pm
Cherokee, i am sure my kids deserve the same Social Security and Medicare Rep Paul Ryan’s mommy gets. Why does he want to give my kids and my WIFE less than his mommy gets?
Boot some kooks!! Vote DEMOCRATIC!!
Get Real
December 28th, 2012
10:28 pm
Shine….there are no words, bless your little heart
td
December 28th, 2012
10:29 pm
Cherokee
December 28th, 2012
10:23 pm
Go get ‘em shine. Soon they will be talking about how much holier they are than the rest of us too.
I wonder why cons never specify which cuts they want to make, and how that should be sold to the American public.
1: Cut TANF in half
2: Make Food stamps and lifetime limit program
3: Cut Medicaid in half
4: Privatize Medicare
5: Bring back 50% of overseas military bases unless country we are in wants to pay for them.
6: Do away with Federal DOE
7: Curt the arts, PBS and planned parenthood.
8: Cut farm subsidies for ethanol.
9: Open all public lands for drilling and raise the royalty fees.
td
December 28th, 2012
10:30 pm
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:27 pm
Cherokee, i am sure my kids deserve the same Social Security and Medicare Rep Paul Ryan’s mommy gets.
How are you going to pay for it?
td
December 28th, 2012
10:33 pm
Shine,
Let me give you one more fact to consider. You can tax the top 25% of wage earners (Those making more then $133,000 per year) 100% and still will not balance the current budget much less pay down any of the $17 trillion in debt.
Voter
December 28th, 2012
10:35 pm
@td – Good plan. I would also include a 5% pay cut to all Government employees. 10% pay cut for Congressman and Executive Branch. Maybe instead of the Budget Control Act of 2011 with auto-cuts, we could say if the President doesn’t get a Budget as the Constitution mandates we cut their salary and perks 10% each year including their pensions and that they automatically qualify for ObamaCare instead of their golden benefit package.
Get Real
December 28th, 2012
10:36 pm
td….don’t you know, money grows on the magical trees in Obamaland where unicorns roam free and everything is free. Best of all, no one has to work as the fairy king takes care of all your wants and needs…..
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:37 pm
How are you going to pay for it?
Who’s paying for hers? Old white geezers on many of these message boards are a piece of work. Many are retired from the state or other government yet bellyache about others having government jobs and getting pensions. They are ok with themselves getting a pension but tyghe next generation of government worker or union worker doesnt deserve one in theior nutty minds.They bellyache about spending but are happy not to have their ss and medicare cut cause they over 55.
Old kooks make me sick. Maybe folks over 65, especially white folks like me, shouldnt be allowed to vote. They are a danger to the country and society.
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:40 pm
In kook fantasy land, money comes from the heavens in the form of wealth clouds and rains down upon the masses providing prosperity and the american dream for all.
Been there, done that, got the THAT CRAP DOESNT WORK shirt.
Voter
December 28th, 2012
10:42 pm
@Shine – “Old kooks make me sick.”
Talk about respect for your elders. The greatest generation is almost gone. They left us a great nation but this next generation will slowly destroy what our fathers and grandfathers fought and died for.
td
December 28th, 2012
10:45 pm
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:37 pm
Just as I thought. You are not serious and your conversation here, refusal to even make one suggestion and admitting that you voted for Obama means you are an uniformed voter that just wants what the government can give you.
Get Real
December 28th, 2012
10:46 pm
Shine….you sound like a very bitter individual; did someone keep you down all your life. Others succeeded where you failed? Grow up and get a pair!!
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:47 pm
I respect my elders. Just calling a spade a spade. The GOP uses the elderly. That is what is disrepectful. Many older white women hunker down listening to that idiot Pat Roberson and that unconvicted felon Ralph Reed and similiar bunches and think they voting for God by supporting the nut party.
Gag……………..
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:48 pm
I see. I call it as I see it while yall whine and moan about Obama winning and yall losing yet I am the bitter one.
LMAO!!
Voter
December 28th, 2012
10:49 pm
@Shine – “Gag…………”
Hang on, someone might show up and do the Heimlich maneuver for you.
Any takers? Anyone?
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:51 pm
Sorry TD, I dont know it all or claim to (like you act like) but I am much more informed than your average voter.
I voted for Obama……proudly I might add considering the nut jobs of the GOP.
td
December 28th, 2012
10:53 pm
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:48 pm
I see. I call it as I see it while yall whine and moan about Obama winning and yall losing yet I am the bitter one.
LMAO!!
Call it like you see it. You must have some horrible vision problems my friend because all I have seen you call is “Republican bad”, “Democrat good”, Obama a living god” and “defense spending bad”. Anymore words of wisdom?
Voter
December 28th, 2012
10:53 pm
@Shine – Remember that when your taxes keep getting higher. Remember that when ObamaCare taxes affect your paycheck. Remember that when your civil liberties are taken away.
Oh wait, that sounds like what they put in the Declaration of Independence about King George.
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:54 pm
Nighty night republican kooks. Yall can have the last word. I know yall busy planning to finish ruining the country and crashing the market again and getting the country another credit downgrade with your kook House majority.
td
December 28th, 2012
10:56 pm
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:51 pm
Sorry TD, I dont know it all or claim to (like you act like) but I am much more informed than your average voter.
I actually believe that you are smarter then the average Obama voter and that my friend is a sad commentary. If you do not realize that we have a huge spending problem that can not be solved by raising taxes to a 100% level on the top 25% of wage earners then we will never be able to actual solve our problems. Your wife, myself, your children and my children will not live as well as you and your generation have lived.
Voter
December 28th, 2012
10:57 pm
@Shine – We’ll pray for you. Go take your meds and sleep tight.
Shine
December 28th, 2012
10:57 pm
One last word then voter…its ok if my taxes go up considering they lower now compared to my GDP…..:-)
Civil liberties taken away? Is that like outlawing abortion, Homeland Security, voter ID, ETC ETC ETC?
Voter
December 28th, 2012
11:03 pm
@Shine – Meds, quick, water, swallow.
Get Real
December 28th, 2012
11:05 pm
Perhaps some quick electro shock therapy
Voter
December 28th, 2012
11:07 pm
@Shine – Here’s what you do, rub your shoes across the carpet 10x quickly, then touch your forehead. Repeat as necessary.
tell the truth
December 28th, 2012
11:11 pm
td You stupid idiot- no one thinks that the increased taxes on the VERY WEALTHIEST will solve all the problems. It will require spending cuts AND increased revenues-anyone who says otherwise does not know anything about economics and accounting!!!! But EVERYONE knows that these wealthy have not been paying what they should have over the past 10 years- it is a fairness issue!!!!! Deal with that!!!!
td
December 28th, 2012
11:17 pm
tell the truth
December 28th, 2012
11:11 pm
“But EVERYONE knows that these wealthy have not been paying what they should have over the past 10 years- it is a fairness issue!!!!!”
Enlighten us and tell us all how much the wealthy make as part of overall income and how much they pay in taxes? If you can not tell us then you just prove to be another uninformed Obama voter.
Get Real
December 28th, 2012
11:19 pm
What’s fair? Has anyone broken the law? Probably yes but capital gains tax and income tax are very different. If you want the tax code to be “more fair” (whatever that means) then streamline the tax code which is currently a voluminous monster
Voter
December 28th, 2012
11:24 pm
Ok, one more time:
“Friend, you cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. And what one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government can’t give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody. And when half of the people get the idea they don’t have to work because the other half’s going to take care of them, and when the other half get the idea it does no good to work because somebody’s going to get what I work for. That, dear friend, is about the end of any nation.”
Dr. Adrian Rogers
luangtom
December 28th, 2012
11:30 pm
This scripted drama that we are seeing is repulsive. An eleventh-hour passage of a bill in the US Senate is nothing less than criminal. This whole scenario needn’t be happening. A bill dealing with Finance and Budget is supposed to be required to be first passed in the US House. Two already have, by the way, and Harry Reid, chair of the US Senate, sat on them and did not get them to the floor for a vote. Now, this melodramatic and heroic charade is going to script he and President Obama as the heroes in getting an eleventh-hour bill passed to save the country from falling over a fiscal cliff. Wake-up, AmeriKa!!
Let us hope that 2013 can serve as a spring-board to set both House and Senate on a more stable course. We sure got the leader that we needed, didn’t we?
ODD OWL
December 29th, 2012
12:54 am
The Government don’t have a spending problem… The Republicans have a debt problem… A wopping $16 trillion dollars debt problem… The Republicans really need to start paying down their debt… The interest on the Republicans massive $16 trillion dollars debt is $500 billion dollars a year… Not one dime of the Republican debt went to social security, medicare, medicaid or any other social program… President Obama is not going to cut one dime from our entitlement social programs… The Government can cut the military budget, farm subsidies, oil subsidies and other business subsidies… All social programs are off the debt/deficit negotiating table… The Republicans intentionally ran up the $16 trillion debt for the sole purpose of using it to justify cutting our entitlement social programs… Its not going to happen… share the wealth, tax the rich, pay down the debt…
ODD OWL
December 29th, 2012
1:09 am
The President is holding Johnny “one note” Boehner (cut spending) and Mean Mitch McConnell by the short hairs and he’s dangling them over the fiscal cliff… Once the Republicans cave on tax increases on the rich and elite, the anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist will become a footnote in the trash bin of history… Forward…
Buckhead Boy
December 29th, 2012
4:58 am
When the first Republican can explain to me how their prohibition against the government negotiating drug prices for Medicare is cost-efficient, I’ll listen to their arguments on entitlements. When the first Republican can explain to me how keeping the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars off the books for years constituted responsible budgeting, I’ll listen to their arguments on deficit spending. When the first Republican can explain to me how the Bush Tax Cuts didn’t explode the national debt, I’ll listen to their arguments on the national debt. When the first Republican can explain to me how their savaging Glass-Steagall and other financial regulation wasn’t causative to the Great Recession, and the libor and other pillaging of the economy, I’ll listen to their arguments on financial regulation. But instead, all I hear from them is sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Get Real
December 29th, 2012
5:32 am
Odd and Boy…..did y’all just get home from a late night bender….your comments appear to be the product of grossly impaired brains…
Weetamoe
December 29th, 2012
7:15 am
Obama has done nothing but travel around the country campaigning and giving speeches designed to incite hatred against conservatives. Any *leadership* this guy displays is negative and harmful. He is lazy and shiftless and should be fired as any incompetent employee would be.