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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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With Boehner already taking an intransigent position on raising taxes in the coming weeks, it tells me that Republicans have seen the internal polling and know that Romney is going down to defeat and that President Obama is about to be re-elected. Why else would Boehner already be announcing what the Teahadist, Gutless Obstructionists are going to do before the results are known?
from your lips to gods ears
You Democrats just don't get it!! Tax the rich at 100% and you still won't pay for all your liberal entitlements! Look at Greece, Italy, Portugal. And what do you mean by fair share. I am paying at the 50+% level. I creat jobs. That is ALL YOU GET!
Really, exactly how many jobs have you created in the past four years with American middleclass incomes the lowest they've been - as a result of market driven trickle down economics - do you have customers for your small business? Further, your marginal tax rate on investment income is at the lowest its ever been in the history of this country. Also, after you've taken all your allowable business deductions, do you have a net income of over $250,000? If not, then you won't see a tax increase under the Democratic proposal. If you're a job creator, I wouldn't want to take one of your jobs because you obviously aren't smart enough to stay in business.
If you're paying a tax rate of 50% plus or minus, then you need a new business accountant because even Romney's tax rate as a multi-billionaire is only around 14%, with the upper rate somewhere around 20% - so you're either lying or stupid - or both.
No one is suggesting that. We do need to cut spending, invest in our military only as needed, cut entitlements, take profit motive out of hearthcare, and also raise revenue.
I don't think the GOP is in a very good position. If Obama get's re-elected they won'y be able to use the "one term president" line as an excuse to block and filibuster him at every turn.
What will their reason be this time?
They know that stagnating any kind of progress will make them look bad and they will be looking at a Democratic win in 2016.
If Romney wins the presidency, he will extend the Bush tax cuts for the 1 %. He will not be able to do that for the middle class if he wants to pay down the deficit. So, he looses either way.
Again, bad prospects for the GOP in 2016. Keep it up GOP, you're going to crash and burn either way.
I'm sure the GOP is already developing a strategy similar to what they did to Clinton. Paralyze the presidency by endless investigations, warranted or not.
The writing is on the wall.
They are running out of feet to shoot.
I will never vote for another Republican again. I was a registered Republican for almost all of my voting life I can't stand that party anymore I sure wish there was a viable third party option though.
It would have to be born in the House and the Senate, and they can't be crazy Tea Baggers. We all see how that's working out.
I can't talk for others but the way the Taliban GOP being attacking the rights of women and now trying to stop people from voting is not what America is about. This is not the GOP of my earlier years. I no longer know this pack of dogs.
The bloated hog of the federal budget are the welfarewhores of the military/industrial complex. Time to unlatch the military leeches from the big government teat.
The good thing about Pres. Obama's re-election, if any is we may then get a "Ron Paul" like libertarian to fix the mess both parties have created!
It's OK to dream.
This guy really is a bone head - wtf - worst obstructionist congress ever. This is why they have the lowest performance rating and why they should all be fired. We need to get rid of corproate funding of elections so less established ( i.e. corrupt) politicians cane be voted nto office.
To hell with deficits is exactly what these fools are saying. You heard it here first, deficits are last, rich people come first to the GOP.
to all that have not yet voted..please vote the democratic line! our country is counting on you
How to reduce the deficit: reduce pay and benefits to Congress. They will only get paid for work they actually
accomplish, and they can go shopping for their own health care, paid for from their own salaries.(I vote to reduce their #@&$! salaries, also
ENOUGH!!!!
After tonight the GOP will find out who the 98% is blaming.
So much for hoping for a little sanity from the GOP. Screw America, it's all about more tax cuts for the people who keep their money offshore to avoid paying any taxes.
To bad the GOP didn't let this little cat out of the bag yesterday... the day before the election.
Time to call their bluff and let sequestration take effect and the Bush tax cuts expire as enacted. That is the plan that was put in place to address the position Boehner has announced. The country's GDP will probably take quite a hit. But I highly doubt the country's security is going to be imperiled by the cuts to defense. And expiration of the tax cuts will go a long way toward generating revenue to address our so-called "immoral" deficit spending. Obama just has to be willing to squeeze Boehner and Cantor's gonads.
President Obama has nothing to lose. He can't run for re-election. If I was him, I would squeeze so hard that they burst in his hands. I don't care how much this hurts republicans. I don't think they have the balls to try and bluff the President this time....
If I were prez, I would want to see every government department head's budget on my desk pronto, including the military.
Red pin out and working. Everyone gets to make a sacrifice. No extension of the Bush tax cuts.
Trim the fat. Focus on infrastructure.
This isn't rocket science but unfortunately, it's politics and that means greed.
If the Republican House is going to drive the bus off the fiscal cliff, we need to make sure they are strapped to the hood. Bulleys are cowards and they will bink if we make the consequences clear. After Obama wins the election his supporters need to turn attention towards these cowards.
Gee, I wonder why the Taliban Republicans waited until election day to let us know they plan to continue to sabotage the economy until the billionaires get everything they want?
Let's hope that Mr. Boehner also believes there should be no tax increases on the other segments of the income scale should either Obama or Romney be chosen. Otherwise, he's simply doing the bidding of the wealthy without any serious convictions of tax fairness.
The Heritage Foundation & the GOP believed in putting Romneycare out there for everyone. But now this President gets in passed and they both cry about how bad it is. Sorry they can paint their picture with whatever color they want. But it come's down to who our President is!!!!
The Republicans said that they would "do anything to ensure that Obama was a one-term President".
They (the Republicans) have blocked EVERYTHING that has been sent to them by the current Administration and now they are claiming that Obama is a failure. If the "leaders" were to lead and stop the partisanship then maybe OUR COUNTRY could get back on the correct path.
But that will not happen because because of the backers of the Republican party who refuse to accept that OUR PRESIDENT has actually done a pretty good job considering absolutely no help from the Republicans!
Sadly it does, but when you call them on it, it's the old "how dare you, you must be a racist yourself."
WTF man? Since when does pointing out someone's racism make you a racist? I just don't get that.
Sadder yet, I have come to believe they do not even see it. It's almost like it's unconscious.
Once again goper "leaders" threaten to impede our society, our government and obstruct ALL attempts to fix the economy.
Why don't these buffoons move to Iran or Syria, someplace where the people share their views of the United States and the American people?
F**k Boehner and all his a$$ kissing sheep - Cantor, McConnell, Luntz and Kyl. It's time to bring "cloture" to these useless pieces of septic sludge. Same old $h!t - screw the country while submitting to their despots for personal gain. The country will be coming for all four of you and hell will be coming with it.
Just wait till these dingle berries wake up tomorrow and no longer have control of the House. Screw GOP
Keep spewing your verbal diarrhea you moronic laughable lib. Even Plastic Pelosi knows you and your ignorant ilk don't stand a chance.