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Even before voters finished casting ballots in House races across the country, the Republican leadership in the chamber began girding for a major battle over taxes and spending in the weeks after the election.
Confident that Republicans would retain their majority in the House, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told POLITICO that GOP lawmakers would reject any new taxes on households in the highest income tax bracket.
"We’re not raising taxes on small-business people," Boehner said. "Our majority is going to get re-elected ... We’ll have as much of a mandate as he will — if that happens — to not raise taxes."
Al Behrman / AP
Speaker John Boehner talks with reporters outside Ronald Reagan Lodge after voting, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in West Chester, Ohio.
Consider Boehner's comments the first public salvo in a coming battle over how to best address the so-called "fiscal cliff," the mixture of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of 2013.
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The fiscal cliff involves the expiration of the 2001 Bush tax cuts for all tax brackets and a two-year payroll tax cut, both of which are scheduled to sunset at the end of this year, barring action by Congress. Also set to take effect are the automatic spending cuts set forth in the 2011 debt ceiling deal, which were designed to be so distasteful that lawmakers would reach a compromise on how to best address mounting U.S. debt.
A standoff between the Obama administration, a Democratic Senate and a conservative Republican House of Representatives yielded no deal, leaving the fiscal cliff in its stead. Economists have warned that, if nothing happens to change those deadlines, any economic recovery would be imperiled. Moreover, the cuts fall heavily upon the defense budget, a cut which military leaders have warned could endanger American security.
GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan votes at the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville, Wisconsin.
This gridlock might dissipate if voters elect Romney as president on Tuesday. But if Obama wins a second term and the Senate stays in Democratic hands, the stalemate that helped produce so much disillusionment and nastiness this election could rear its head again in the coming weeks.
"You have to do something, and the best way to do it is by growing the economy," California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republicans' whip in the House, said Tuesday on MSNBC. "Now, we are going to have a fiscal cliff between now and the end of the year -- from the debt limit to the looming tax increases to sequestration. But all those ideas have been passed by the House to solve those. It's the Senate that has not acted."
That rhetoric might sound familiar to any reader who has tracked the incessant bickering between the Obama administration and Congress over the past two years.
But amid the bluster that has begun to emerge from Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama's team seemed more upbeat.
Before the president made his way home to Chicago, he made one final campaign stop where his journey to the Oval Office began – in Iowa. Obama Senior Adviser Robert Gibbs discusses.
"This election, when the president's re-elected, should break this fever of Washington gridlock," Obama adviser Robert Gibbs, the former White House press secretary, said on MSNBC. "It's time that Republicans come to the table and understand that we've got to get something done on the big pressing issues of our time."
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Boehner keeps saying small businesses which is a lie. A company with over 3 to 4 hundred employees is not small. Second they the GOP talk about doing what the people are telling them to do. But in a number of polls the voters across the Country want taxes to go up on the 1%. Just more bull from the Taliban GOP.
Romney claimed that Obama failed to work in a bi-partisan manner. I don't think the Boner is offering a compromise here.
Last ditch efforts of idealogues and fanatics. "Damn the voters, we're just gonna do whatever our wealthy overlords tell us to do!"
See you in Hell, Boehner and McConnell!
Once Obama wins, half of the reich wing posting here are going to have a coronary and won't be posting your hate any more. Wont that be nice. Hey repubs - make sure you are doing jumping jacks while watching your flip-flopper lose tonight. Or play russian roulette with your gun if you cannot stand Obama winning. Tired of your hate - time to move forward.
Boehner.. I speak for many when I say shut the trap door and do your job!This is not about protecting any group,, only to bring some fiscal sanity to this nation. Don't obstruct, move forward!
So, the fact that the GOP leadership refuses to grow up and act like adults is proven once again, eh?
The single most persuasive fact of the need to adjust tax rates so that the rich pay more is the extreme maldistribution of wealth that started in the 1970's. We're on our way to becoming a banana republic with a wealthy elite turning us and working people all around the world into their colonists.
When will the Taliban GOP put the Country ahead of the 2%????
The House will change tonight and in 2 years we the 98% will finish off the Taliban GOP.
Here we go again......another 4 years of Boehner and HIS "DO NOTHING CONGRESS." It's time we all banned together and got rid of them AND replaced them with people who know how to work TOGETHER!
The congressional GOPS made up their minds that they would not work with the Obama Admin. the day he was first elected........A DO NOTHING CONGRESS WITH THE LOWEST APPROVAL RATING IN HISTORY!!! What are we waiting for?
What Boner doesn't say is that his Retardlicans don't have to do anything to raise taxes. All they have to do is nothing, which is all they're good at, and taxes will go up AUTOMATICALLY. This is one more legacy of George W. Bush, who just couldn't bring himself to push a straight tax cut that didn't eventually expire AUTOMATICALLY, because he would have had to account for that in the budget. This time, it's the very incompetence of House Republicans which is going to cause the tax increase. They might try to do something for a change, instead of nothing, but they haven't been able to do anything but obstruct and paralyze and prolong the recession in four years. What a joke. All of these losers need to be fired, and their free government medical care for life should be terminated.
Well, at least the republicans made it clear that they couldn't care less about America for another four years.
I think we already knew that.
So true but their time is running out or should I say their days are running out.
We are not against the wealthy, it's just time they paid their fair share, they have had a free ride for the last 20 years. Eisenhower had it right. The rich don't create jobs, a healthy middle class creates jobs by creating demand for goods and services. Which ends up creating more wealth for all.
GOP may not realize it yet but after tonight the 98% will finish what they the GOP started. They attacked everything and everyone but the top 2%. Tonight the 98% will make a statement and in 2014 we will end what is left of the GOP.
We haven't even finished casting ballots and these brats are already vowing more obstruction. At least it shows their lack of confidence in Romeny's chances. Stay classy, Boehner.
Tomorrow Boenher will be badmouthing president Obama for not being willing to compromise.
The best thing that could happen for deficit control would be to let all the Bush tax rates expire, across all incomes, just as the Congress originally intended. The whole reason why they set up these tax rates to expire was so that the long term impact on the deficit and accumulating national debt could be finessed for political cover. The Republican Congress didn't want to own up to the huge long term impact on deficits and the debt of these Bush rate cuts, so they pretended that the rates would be limited in duration, expiring in 2010. But that whole 'expire' fantasy is a scam, and the extremely negative impact of the tax rate cuts (going almost immediately from a surplus, the first in over a generation, to a deficit) was then compounded by going into two ill-advised, questionably justified wars of choice (WMD's... anywhere? Well, no actually.) which were paid entirely by borrowing, expanding the Bush deficits even more. Over eight years George W Bush added over $5 Trillion to the debt. This all done by the Republican president and his Republican Congress.
Further, the wealthy "invested" their tax rate cut gains (by far the majority of the cuts) in financial speculation fueled by financial deregulation and invested in speculative and derivative "investments" seeking high returns that turned out to be a financial blow-up almost as bad as the Great Depression.
Did the "job creators" actually create jobs? No, there were only just barely as many jobs at the end of Bush's 8 years as there were at the beginning. Did the Republicans shrink government, lessen the intrusiveness of the federal government? No, they created the TSA, Homeland Security, huge new bureaucracy's and government agencies which probe and spy on citizens, scan and x-ray and pat down school children and grandmothers for the illusion of "fighting the terrorists" -- more government intrusion and all created on the Republican's watch.
Now Republicans are promising to protect the gains of the wealthy, this is the worst thing we as a nation can do. Let the tax rates expire, let sequestration cut spending (the only way that will -ever- happen) and see if we can get this deficit under control.
Republicans want to protect and double-down on the foolish policies of Bush-economics, proven policy disasters.
GOP lawmakers have sold out nearly all Americans to the billionaires. They are despicable traitors and far too many people seem to believe their lies. How has allowing the billionaires to have more money to hide offshore helping the American economy ?
The expiration of the Bush Tax cuts for upper income people and the debt ceiling should be two separate issues to be addressed. Maybe they are and I did not read the article correctly, seems like the insinuation is they are bundled together.
If they want to play chicken the President should just shut down the Government until they agree to his terms.
We have to address the deficit, if we don't end the Bush tax cuts, where will we get the revenue to pay down the deficit?
The middle class and all of the programs to help the common man.
They know this and they do not care.
LJ it's been reported that we waste over a trillion a year in all programs and Departments. Yet for some reason the GOP could only come up with 100 billion in cuts. Attacking waste & fraud is something they never go after. Congress is nothing but a cesspool crooks!!!!
As is usual, the Republican Party always puts its agenda in front of the needs of the country. It is quite clear and obvious even to a blind person that the Republican Party has only one agenda and it's their own. Witness 360 filibusters since Obama took office. A record number. Talk about obstructionists. My conservative friends don't like it when I bring this up. Why is the Republican Party so obstructionist. They are the definition of gridlock for political gain. Let's make the president look as bad as we can so we can score political points and then point a finger at him that he's not getting anything done. Spare me. They are the pot calling the kettle black. And I surely do hope that if Romney wins the Democrats will treat him like the Republicans treated Obama. Then we can all point to Romney and the Republicans and say you're not getting anything done. The Senate will not have 60 votes to end filibusters. More gridlock is to be expected regardless of who becomes president. It's politics first, party second and America third.
Where is Nelson Rockefeller and William F Buckley and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon the brains of the past Republican party. Now the only thing the Republican Party can really put forth are tea baggers. What intellectual and philosophical statesmens they are. If this is the party of the future the country will go to hell with the current stupidity of the Republican Party and their obvious vested interest.
Its so nice to know that they have no intentions of paying off the National Debt. They intend as always to push it of till they are long gone and buried.
Sorry Mr Boehner you cannot pay off our debt simply by cutting spending....Of course that is, unless you intend to stop spending every cent taken in.....which would mean a complete shut down of the Federal Government....And in that scenario no one will be around to count the revenue coming in. Why not just put us into bankruptcy now?
4 more years of Republican filibustering.
Blah blah blah, rich Republicans are evil... small business doesn't matter if the owner makes money. More of the "punish them if they are sucessful BS." Guess what??? Without them this country would be nothing. That 1% <more dems than Reps> pay more taxes in one year than every other citizen in the country combined.
It was reported that Red States take more handouts then Blue States. Just a fact I believe you should check on before posting GOP lies.
"highest income bracket" is NOT equal to "small business people" Boehner is deliberately conflating two completely different things and he knows it. We will never make progress in this country until the Republican leadership STOPS THEIR LYING AND DECEPTION.
remember corporations are people..... this would be funny if it was not so sad. In the real world all these guys would lose their jobs because they do nothing.
OHIO UPDATE!!!.....November 6th 2012 5:49pm
BAD NEWS FOR OBAMA !!!
HAMILTON COUNTY OHIO RECORD REPUBLICAN TURNOUT
75% REPUBLICAN TURNOUT BY 8:30 AM
LARGEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY!!!
LINES IN REPUBLICAN AREAS ARE 1 1/2 HOURS LONG!!!
BYE BYE OBAMA!!!!
First poll closed!!!
ROMNEY JUST WON INDIANA!!!
I didn't know Wonderland had an Indiana also. I'm sure Romney has the Mad Hatter's support. LOL