The fall guy - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

link · #16 12-21-2012, 11:28 AM

...As the sun sets on any possibility of the GOP maintaining control of the House after the seemingly distant mid-term elections…....they put their hopes on the Santa Clause.....

Boehner throws in towel on his plan to avert 'fiscal cliff'

By Lori Montgomery and Rosalind S. Helderman
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner abruptly abandoned a partisan plan to avert the year-end "fiscal cliff" late Thursday after failing to persuade conservative Republicans to extend tax cuts for the vast majority of Americans and let tax rates rise for millionaires.

With more than four dozen House Republicans either on the fence or signaling their opposition, Boehner, R-Ohio, and other GOP leaders shuttered the House floor moments before the vote was scheduled to begin. They disappeared into Boehner's office, then summoned rank-and-file lawmakers to an emergency meeting that ended with a terse statement calling off the vote.

Boehner's sudden move throws into chaos efforts to avoid the fiscal cliff, just 11 days before more than $500 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts are to take effect. Unless Congress acts, many economists predict the nation will again descend into a recession.

The House is now recessed until after Christmas, and the Senate is to meet for only a few hours Friday afternoon before members leave town until Dec. 27.

Boehner's inability to rally the House behind a proposal that would have preserved tax cuts for more than 99 percent of Americans — while raising rates for about 400,000 wealthy families — casts doubt on his ability to pass any alternative to the fiscal cliff. It also underscores the limited clout he and his leadership team wield within the Republican caucus.

"The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass," read a statement from Boehner's office. "Now it is up to the president to work with Reid on legislation to avert the fiscal cliff," it said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

In a statement released a short while later, the White House said, "The president will work with Congress to get this done, and we are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy."

Reid's office sounded a more combative note. "The only way to avoid the cliff altogether is for Speaker Boehner to return to negotiations and work with President Obama and the Senate to forge a bipartisan deal," spokesman Adam Jentleson said.

The vote on "Plan B" was perhaps the most consequential test of Boehner's leadership since he took control of the House last year.

Persuading a majority of Republicans to cast a politically treacherous vote to permit higher taxes could have enhanced his leverage with President Obama in future talks to secure a broad plan to rein in the national debt, Republicans said.

Failure, however, immeasurably weakens Boehner's hand and could imperil his hold on power.

Until earlier this week, Boehner had been pursuing an entirely different course in hopes of striking a deal with Obama to save $2 trillion over the next decade.

He offered to raise $1 trillion in fresh revenue, in part by raising tax rates for millionaires, and he offered to delay a fight over the federal debt limit for one year, both major GOP concessions.

On Monday, he abruptly switched gears, complaining that the president had not made concessions of equal size and significance to rein in the cost of federal health and retirement programs.

Obama also insisted on delaying a debt-limit fight for two years, a position Republican leaders considered unacceptable.

Although Boehner had insisted earlier in the week that talks with Obama would continue, he announced he was pursuing Plan B, a bare-bones bill to extend a variety of expiring tax breaks for the vast majority of Americans.
The measure would permit taxes to rise on income over $1 million — affecting about 400,000 households — but by extending tax cuts for everyone else, it would significantly soften the economic blow of the fiscal cliff.

House leaders sold the bill as a $3.9 trillion tax cut, one of the largest in U.S. history. They received support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.

As the week wore on and House leaders scrambled for votes, they amended the measure to raise even less revenue. And they announced plans to hold a vote on a separate bill that would cancel automatic spending cuts scheduled to hit the Pentagon in January and slice more deeply into domestic programs.
That measure narrowly won House approval late Thursday on a vote of 215 to 209.

Gradually, Plan B appeared to gain favor as a more preferable alternative to a deal with Obama that would raise $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade and sacrifice GOP leverage to demand spending cuts in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling.

But as the vote approached in the evening, independent tallies suggested that the margin was razor thin.

With Democrats dead set against the measure, Boehner could spare only two dozen Republicans. At least twice that many were either leaning against the bill or undecided, according to a tally of the Hill newspaper.

Quipped Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.: The House was adjourned "subject to Santa Claus finding ... votes for John Boehner."

source: http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019948704_cliff21.html