Poker faces have invaded Capitol Hill as the White House and Congress try to get the other to make a misstep in the ongoing negotiations
to avoid going over the fiscal cliff on Dec. 31 at midnight.
Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner has offered a plan to cut deficits by $2.2 trillion over a 10 year period, his counter to the president’s $2 trillion cut in our nation’s deficit.
Both the president and the Republicans have now played their first hand. (By the way there are only 26 days remaining in this last cliff avoidance strategy.)
Part of the cuts put forward by the Republican plan calls for $800 billion in new revenue that would come by increases in tax receipts, not from increased economic growth. This plan would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, including the wealthiest.
Further, the GOP plan would slow benefit increases for entitlements and the annual rise in tax brackets. The Boehner plan would save $4.6 trillion if it includes the same additional savings as the White House proposal. The White House had proposed $1 trillion in domestic spending cuts, which had been agreed to last year. This savings would, in part, be realized by the drawing down of expenses currently used to fund the war in Afghanistan (approximately $800 billion).
Both the Republican and White House plans factor in interest savings that would be realized. The U.S. is currently paying $600 billion in interest on the $16.3 trillion national debt.
Calling the president’s hand, the Republicans trotted out that their counteroffer which is closer to the numbers suggested by Erskine B. Bowles, the Democratic co-chairman of the president’s deficit reduction task force. However, Bowles distanced himself from the Republican plan by noting: “It will be necessary for both sides to move beyond their opening positions.”
That means that both the White House and Congress will be playing more poker with the lives and future of every citizen of the United States.
Stay tuned. This poker game is going to get a lot more interesting as we near the edge of the fiscal
cliff.
Keith Hansen

Comments (39)

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captron 12/05/12 - 08:49 am

The Party of No just keeps on keeping on......

If we could only see a picture of what sitting between a rock and a hard place looks like maybe more would understand that Jan 1 2013 the " TAX " rates change.
That would be a FACT !
Will the party of suppression & intimidation tactics ever wake up ?

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Stevebusch

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stevebusch 12/05/12 - 09:28 am

Barry folded his hand and

Barry folded his hand and went back on the campaign trail at a toy factory. He is as concerned about the cliff as he was about the four Americans killed in Benghazi. ( that's right, four Americans killed.)If he can't handle the resposibilities of his office, he should move out and take mama Robinson and Jay Carneywith him. Whatta pack of losers.

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sadiemarriedlady

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sadiemarriedlady 12/05/12 - 09:29 am

Captron

You are, of course, talking about the Democrats in the name of the President and Mr. Harry Reid..

They are the intimidators here and don't seem to care
what happens to this country, only buying votes with
taxpayer money.

Educate yourself on the Detroit City Council member that
stated "we voted for Obama and now he needs to
bail out Detroit". Not exact wording, but the sentiments
are the same.
Detroit, another city going bankrupt and because they voted
for Obama,they should be bailed out. No thought where the
funds come from. Maybe they should just be directly bailed
out by China.

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Scary Phailin 12/05/12 - 09:33 am

On republicon outrage

Photobucket

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tripwire3 12/05/12 - 09:34 am

colklink

Do you mean the party of no spending cuts? No criticism of a black president? No criticism of female appointees? No, you did not build that? No, you can't be trusted with guns?

Please elaborate.

captron 12/05/12 - 10:37 am

For those who dont understand what scary posted here again

and missed the Tidy Bowl cruise ,as well as the Heavens Gate CA trip , Im afraid you better count on the new Affordable Care Act provisions as your only hope of survival going forward.

While you ponder eternity the Mittster is busy at his CA beach front compound retroactively redoing his last public tax return , getting his effective rate back down to 9% from the 14% he claimed earlier. That couple hundred grand will help make a nice down payment on the garage elevator.

Then try to focus on this : ( I know its hard for you)
What is the defintion of a " Temporary tax cut " ?
(Sorry no multiple choice answers this time !)

Ok , So keeping your profound answer in mind.

Now how is that related is Medicare & Social Security in your world ?

Dont choke on your tea while your thinking ....

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southie11 12/05/12 - 11:01 am

They understand. They just can't move on. Boehner needs to be a leader, not a cryer and a whiner. His legacy is not looking too awesome. Head of the least effective congress in history will be on his tombstone, if he doesn't wake up and push away from the microphone and get to work.

He gave Congress a week off a month to vacation from 2010 on.
What does he have in mind for 2013?

sadiemarriedlady 12/05/12 - 11:09 am

Sore losers

I consider 9-10 years to be permanent while knowing that
the only way to get it through a Dem Congress was to compromise and make them temporary. President Obama may want to consider a similar compromise if he really wants
to not go over his cliff,.

As far as Mr. Romney, he lost and it is time for you to get over that and concentrate on the overwhelming debt our children and grandchildren are faced with. The party that
doesn't like cuts so it doesn't disturb their voting base
should try to understand that if you tax the rich like they want
that will only carry this country 6-8 days. And that would trickle
down to the middle class. However you define that.

Cap- I think you may have SMS. or some similar disorder.

tripwire3 12/05/12 - 11:11 am

It's not that we don't understand it. It's that scary has posted this before and, well, we doubt that she understands it. Anyone who has been around longer than, say, ten minutes, knows that a simple graphic doesn't go very far in explaining reality.

Who, for example, was in charge of investigations when those other events took place? Who is in charge now? I suppose, since this is the most transparent administration in the history of the world, there is no need for investigations? Right?

Scary has figured out how to paste pointless graphics into a text box because reasonable textual arguments may be hard for her. And it's frustrating for you because they often cover up the testosterone enhancement ads ("I know its hard for you."). Merry Christmas, captain.

sadiemarriedlady 12/05/12 - 11:13 am

Southie

Of course, we aren't moving on as nothing has changed.
The problems are still the same and worse and the Presdent is a no show in the leadership dept.

If we move on, there will be no engine to move the wagon.
Who would pay the taxes to bail out the bankrupt Detroit?

Boehner is a non factor.

captron 12/05/12 - 11:23 am

J Boehner (R) OH , Only One Thing on his Mind @ this point

How will he prevent himself from crying in Jan. when he hands over his gavel to Eric the Great ( R) VA.

Both those yahoos will get top billing ( biggest photo) in the upcoming ( collectors) edition of USA Today that will detail who exactly in the US House of Reps. stood by their ideolgue fear mongering comrades and put the economy back into another GOP created death spiral.

Make certain you save that Special Edition , since it will be used in a couple years for election purposes to bury whats left of the rebranded GOP.

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Perpetuity 12/05/12 - 12:18 pm

At least the GOP has standards to stand up for

All Obama wants is more of your money. and mine.

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Scribbles 12/05/12 - 01:13 pm

A Virtual Speaker of the House Perhaps - Jan. 2013...Abe.!.

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Made in America by Americans!

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Lifelongresident 12/05/12 - 02:02 pm

As we near the "fiscal cliff",

it is apparent the President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have no problem with going over that cliff! Why should they, it will mean much higher tax revenues coming from everyone and the Democrats in Washington really couldn't care less about John Q. Public. Yes it will mean a temporary drop in spending but Obama knows that by Executive Order he can fix that quickly. Personally, I look forward to the tax rates going up on the liberal posters on this board, it will provide even greater humor than they already provide trying to protect Obama now.

captron 12/05/12 - 02:21 pm

Repurposed , you would understand if anyone does....

The meaning of double standards ,while trying to have everything both ways.

Maybe you too can change retroactively ?

Im afraid your irrational jumping up & down , is merely a symptom of the GOP anger and self imposed blindness some Congressional Reps in DC are inflicted by.

Divisive behavior & statements from DC will NOT fix anything.

Maybe you can explain the logic of holding 98% of American Taxpayers hostage during some pretty tough economic times ? ( Not to mention the recovering economy)

Even dubya emerged from the shadows this week trying to fix somebodies " self deportation policy" misguided efforts.
Funny thing ,he didnt even mention his own temporary
" TAX " mess he created.
I guess we will all have to read Jebs new book.

sadiemarriedlady 12/05/12 - 02:36 pm

Increased taxes

Unfortunately increased taxes do not bother most liberals and the wagon riding, trough building bunch. They always net out to the upside with tax increases. Sure... they may pay a little more but, their payscale and benefits have an increased chance of being raised accordingly. After all.. now there is a larger pot. The really wealthy libs,that actually have jobs, will find that their stocking will have some sort of exemption that will exclude them from the pain and allow that excess money to be contributed to a tax decuctible political contribution.

sadiemarriedlady 12/05/12 - 02:47 pm

What is the debt?

No matter how much we try to add some depth into the situation, the truth is - you just can't fix stupid.

Is it because the failed education system? People can't figure out by looking at the debt clock that something is wrong. Why do you ignore that? we have been talking about it for a long time. Why do you want to pass it on to your
children and grandchildren? Maybe you don't have any.

What you perceive to be anger is frustration that liberals
either want this country to fail or are incapable to look at all the options. They don't understand that raising taxes doesn't help the overall economy and will make it worse. How does it help the budget and huge debt to raise taxes? It doesn't matter how it got there. They are ALL to blame as well as we voters who keep voting in people that only want to give to voters so they can be voted in again.

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mav7770 12/05/12 - 04:01 pm

How bout we just throw

How bout we just throw congress off the fiscal cliff?

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ProudRINO 12/05/12 - 04:15 pm

It's way too late to not raise taxes

Sadie if you want to focus on common sense or not being "stupid", I'm all for that.

By all means look at that debt clock.

But you can't consider yourself an educated or even educable person if you think we can be pulled out of this mess by not raising taxes.

The time when that might have been true passed years ago.

Since then, multiple bi-partisan--i.e., not politically slanted one way or the other because they had members from BOTH major parties--groups and commissions have said the same thing.

That is--we have to raise taxes, and we have to cut spending.

And until we do BOTH we can't get a handle on this monstrous debt problem.

Beyond that, this is really a watershed moment for republicans and the future success of their party.

We were all sold the idea of the Bush tax cuts initially as something that would stimulate the economy, and as something that would not be permanent.

But what we got was the complete opposite. Not only did the tax cuts not help with the economy, they added greatly to the growing debt. And they went on and on--nothing temporary there. And now republicans are sidestepping any discussion of the fact that they weren't meant to be permanent in the first place!

Tax cuts have their role and place at times. But republicans are risking a population that refuses to trust them anytime the subject comes up in the future. How can anyone trust republicans on the matter when temporary tax cuts are sold to us as temporary but become permanent as soon as they are enacted? And when they continually advocate for tax cut after tax cut, no matter the clear impact on budgets, deficits, or long term harm to the country?

I wouldn't be that worried about things yet as it's still political posturing time. I am surprised at the republicans choice of talking points and language after the recent election though--it's like they are still pandering to those forces within their party that caused them to lose so badly.

sadiemarriedlady 12/05/12 - 04:41 pm

Rino

CA, CT New Jersey Detroit, Chicago IL among others are
broke, bankrupt. Too much spending in the way of everything.
No amount of increased revenue will help as they just keep spending. We have to cut spending before they raise any taxes (and you can have a disagreement how that would work
in the long term) because if you raise taxes first they will never cut spending. There is a history of that as you know.
The ole "we will talk about that next year, or some cuts in 10 years", Then they find a way to overcome that. A cut is really not a cut, it is a cut in the increase they project. There is a name for that like budget base ----.
There are some 1300 separate organizations across the 3 branches of federal government. Name 6 agencies that are cost effective and efficient. As long as there are unions involved in the federal workforce, there is no incentive to
be cost effective or need to be efficient.
Not about taxes, but about spending.

Lifelongresident 12/05/12 - 04:42 pm

So ProudRino

What happens when Mr. Obama's taxes on the rich doesn't cover the spending, since Mr. Obama refuses to cut anything. Who you going tax next, the top 10%, the top 25%, the top 50%?? Let's face facts, the Dems will not be happy until they get it ALL. It is so apparent that Mr. Obama wants a socialist state and going over the cliff is the first phase.

captron 12/05/12 - 04:53 pm

Rest Easy sad one , New hope on your horizon !!! From Las Vegas

That darned "liberal media " shot a video this week of your new party cheer leader exiting the The Congressional office building being escorted by one of John Boehners aides.

Now what do you think the guy ( Sheldon Adelson) who anted $ 150 million US to the GOP , and John were talking about ? Tax Cuts ?

Perpetuity 12/05/12 - 05:12 pm

Obama can't lose on this deal!!

1) he stalls and waits to get what he wants in the restructuring, and in doing so

2) We go over the cliff and then, he blames it all, lock stock and barrel, on the GOP!

And since he is reelected and clearly the Pied Piper of the WelfareClan, everyone that was stupid enough to vote for him will flock to his January State of the Onion Address (no typo, this one WILL bring tears to any sane persons eyes!) and revel in the Dance of the Fall of the GOP, with accompaniment by Billy Clinton on SaxySexophone, TimOthy Geithner tickling the JazzRazzmaTazz ivories, and hipswaying and swooning by "ImmaRaccooninDeSkies..." aka in political circles as BrassPipes Hillary Clinton!!!!!!!!!

How wonderful that they will all laugh and join hands and point fingers at anyone GOP and jump about like elves on acid...while the Second Cavalry and Bemidji Brigade saddles up and sets sights on capturing the latest shipment of 5 lb Welfare Bricks O Cheese!