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Updated 1:19 p.m. — A path toward resolving the impending the co-called fiscal cliff was suspended in limbo Friday following a dramatic defeat for House Speaker John Boehner, whose own rank-and-file members refused to support his backup plan Thursday night.
After conservatives balked at Boehner's "Plan B," which would have preserved current income tax rates for those making less than $1 million, the nation's top elected Republican shrugged off questions about whether his job was in danger. And as Washington prepares for a holiday break, Democrats and Republicans are further apart than ever on a plan to avoid the combination of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect in just 11 days.
And the Ohio Republican emerged Friday urging President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats to re-engage in talks toward an overarching deal toward resolving the fiscal cliff, the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts (which fall heavily upon the defense budget) set to take effect on Jan. 1.
"I'm interested in solving the major problems facing our country," Boehner said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "And that means House leaders, Senate leaders and the president are going to continue to have to work together to address those concerns."
With just 10 days until the nation goes over the so-called "fiscal cliff," lawmakers head home for the holidays. For the president, his stay in Hawaii will be a "working vacation." NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., demanded that Boehner allow a Democratic proposal to extend tax rates for income under $250,000 to come up for a vote.
"There's nothing preventing the speaker from taking up our bill," Reid said Friday afternoon on the Senate floor. Boehner did say the House would "certainly take a look" at that bill, if the Senate manages to resolve a procedural holdup that would bar the House from considering the legislation. (Reid called that excuse "phony.")
But the speaker's task has become more vexing than ever; conservatives sent a powerful signal yesterday that they would not approve any tax increase, even on millionaires. Obama's demand that tax rates be allowed to rise for the wealthiest Americans amounts to a seemingly intractable standoff with House Republicans.
Boehner said that many lawmakers still prefer broad reforms to the tax code, but he acknowledged the difficulty in reaching any consensus: "How we get there? God only knows."
The president plans to work with Congress to prevent tax hikes and spending cuts that are expected to kick in on January 1 after House Republicans rejected a vote on House Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" legislation. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.
The speaker seemed unconcerned, though, about the prospects for an uprising from fellow Republicans.
"No, I am not," Boehner said when asked directly whether he should be concerned about his position. "If you do the right things every day for the right reasons, the right things will happen."
Republican leaders dismissed House lawmakers for the holiday weekend after pulling the vote on Thursday evening. Boehner said they would be recalled to Washington "as needed." The Democratic-controlled Senate is currently scheduled to reconvene next Thursday, Dec. 27.
"It's too bad Speaker Boehner wasted a week on this futile, political stunt," Reid said. "It's time for the speaker and all Republicans to return to the negotiating table."
The intervening time period might allow for Boehner and Obama to reach an agreement, though its final approval in the House would almost certainly involve the speaker turning to Democrats for votes. That would strengthen Obama's ability to insist upon tax rates, spending cuts and entitlement reforms that hew more closely to the plan on which he campaigned for much of this year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Boehner has "done his part. He's bent over backwards." As an alternative, the top Senate Republican proposed extending tax rates for a full year with instructions to enact tax reform in the meanwhile. (Democrats rejected it out-of-hand.)
For their part, Republicans said they would look to Obama for action on a path forward.
"I don't want taxes to go up, Republicans don't want taxes to go up," Boehner said. "But we only run the House; Democrats continue to run Washington."
McConnell said: "It's the president's job — it's his job — to find a solution that can pass the Congress."
In the meanwhile, Boehner said he remained committed to working toward a deal, and said he was not interested in giving up his position as speaker.
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Both sides need to stop waiting on God and roll up their sleeves.
But that would require work wouldn't it?
The problem with Plan B is that it would increase taxes for large numbers of lower-income folks as well as cut back on benefits available. The republicans hope that people don't know about this, but this plan includes cuts to several programs affecting the working and middle classes. It was totally unacceptable as a compromise.
We need to cut out waste and the place where there is most waste is the military budget. I think all the republicans who approve of cost plus contracts for military contractors should be forced to accept such contracts the next time they need home repairs!
Janet......I think you bought into a bunch of lies with a tiny bit of truth mixed in. Yes, we could clean up the military a little bit more, but to stop things just because it doesn't have the cuts you like is exactly what congress is doing. Each of them are fighting for their own little ideals and none negotiate. Plan B doesn't really cut anything.......at least anything soon.
Wow, the hole they dig for themselves just gets deeper. How are they going to explain away their failed leadership, and their failure to listen to the mmajority of the American people, not their critics, but 99% of their supporters as well, only to save a tax break for the other 1%. Everyone, Republican, independents, and Democrats say their needs to be a balanced approach to reign in spending and not to increase taxes, but to restore revenue lost. In order to raise more revenue you must restore taxes to what they were but because it has been called an increase they are trapped by their own trickle down failed ideology. Revenue lost through the tax breaks you provided when you could afford them and the tax loopholes that have been found and exploited in the code, are not the same as just "raising taxes". If they had started with this approach, they would have been able to sell it to the party of NO, but now, it seems like we have just gone backwards on it. Wasn't their an agreement at 400K and we had moved on to spending?
Obama and the Dems need to propose some spending cuts to entitlements and some changes to tax loopholes RIGHT NOW and get them passed in the Senate
For example, make 30% the minimum tax rate so the millionaires/billionaires/trillionaires can no longer get away with paying 0% to 14% in taxes. That one is a no brainer.
The Tea Party crazies in the House were exposed this morning on Morning Joe when the Repub Congressman from Kansas (can't remember his name) said he wouldn't ever vote for a tax increase and wouldn't say he'd vote to ban assault weapons.
If the moderate/realistic House Republicans voted to accept the spending cut(s) and change(s) to tax loophole(s), the Tea Party crazies would really be exposed to the country. We need to get a bright, bright spotlight on those so-called politicians who are holding up the democratic process and using the American taxpayers as bait in their ruthless hunt for power.
I see some recall elections in my crystal ball...
Why is that a no brainer? We have never collected taxes from millionaires at a rate higher than the current 35% rate. They have always paid an effective rate at 35% or less. Do you want to get rid of the middle tax cuts deductions as well? We are taxed at a 28% rate, but pay only about 2% in taxes. Please learn a little bit more about the taxes and the deductions. Why should you pay 6% or less and then turn around and complain that the rich are paying 14-20%? Obama would reject the tax loophole problem. Boehner's first plan was to cut loopholes and Obama said that the only thing he would sign was tax rate increases.
No Boehner proposed closing loopholes, Obama excepted, they had a deal at 700K for the tax breaks and moved on to spending, but then he had to back off of it because he doesn't even have the support for that. I don't know where you live, but I consider myself middle class (about 120K household income) and my effective tax rate is no where near 2%. The problem is that everybody is arguing about a small portion of the pie and over just the ideology of taxing rich people more than poor people. The real problem I see is that the tax shelters for corporate America have reduced their portion of the pie to less than 8% of the total government revenue, with income, payroll and other taxes onmiddle class consumers making up the rest. Even the CEO of Caterpillar said that they needed to remove all of the loopholes and incentives, start at 15%, and then put back the ones that make sense. A company like carnival cruise lines that uses a ton of government resources and have a high profit margin can end up paying no taxes to the federal government, but in order to make up for that, your local plumber has to pay his full rate and then his income tax on what he takes as a salary.
God told me the only way the fiscal cliff issue will get resolved is to get rid of the 3 blind mice.
Boehner, O'Connell, & Cantor. So be it.
Invoking God, what an idiot. I wish we can fire this buffoon on the spot and not wait till his re-election.
Obama needs to cancel their vacation, all of them till this is resolved.
Wow....such a bigot.
bigot?
Thank you Mr Boehner for exposing your party for the anti Americans they really are. After this fiasco and the gun and immigration debates to come people will run to the polls to get your party out of power permanently in 2014.
Boehner needs to start doing the job he was sent in Congress to do - find compromise and pass legislation. If his members do not comply, he has to find a way to get them to get them to comply.
The Democrats did managed to pass Obama care, even if they had to face significant opposition in their ranks. Agree with it or not, they did what they had to do, to get things moving.
If he can't he needs to step down.
I think that is what Boehner fears.....passing terrible legislation just in the name of getting things done. It is much better to get things right than the rush through and pass terrible legislation. Besides, the purpose of this is to decrease the deficit, not increase it with all sorts of gifts, bribes and giveaways to holdouts in the party. Things like that are the only reason Obamacare passed.
And America will be better off because Obamacare was passed, giving us the chance to refine it and make it better. Rather than sitting for another 30 years blustering about how health care needs to be reformed while making absolutely 0 progress towards reform, like we'd been doing for the 30 years prior to the ACA.
I think the only thing 'ole Bonerhead is good at is crying and drinking...someone give him a 1/5 of Jack Daniels...he needs a good cry! Voters...stop voting for these frauds! The only thing these f**kers know how to do is to keep taking it up the butt for the corporations. You, me and the regular Americans can all fend for ourselves living in slums working at Walmart and McDonalds...quit voting over silly policy differences over tribal god images...vote for the good of the country! Vote these Republitards out of office in 2014!
How to trim wasteful spending....cut the military! We should have a military for one reason and one reason only...protect and defend our borders. This does not mean to police the world and start preemptive wars!! If the military was cut by 40% and foreign bases closed...wow, what a difference we could achieve...perhaps for once in about 100 years people would stop hating us. The majority of the world doesn't hate us because we were successful (in the past), they hate us because we interfere in world events that we have no business in doing so. Mend our own fences and mind our own business!!
There's no question about the GOP's primary job of protecting those poor millionaires. But the GOP should have figured out that they can no longer buy an election and better listen to the majority if they want to have any say in running the country. And we do need REAL conservatives.
That isn't close the the truth. The facts do not back you up on that. Don't be so gullible. The GOP fights for all Americans and want smaller more effective government. That is why the tax cuts went to all Americans. It is a completely different mindset than the democrats who want a divided America.
If the GOP was really interested in the debt problem they wouldn't have created 12 trillion of it before Obama even became POTUS. They only want to worry about it when the Dems are in power, THEN they are the "fiscal conservatives."
Geez P.A.F. ... Switch over to the grape kool-aid for a while or you'll end up with orange skin like Boehner. The Jig is up, no need to go on "informing" America as to what the GOP stands for... It's over, check the friggin memo. They showed their hand over and over and, hey look! Just did it again!!!
"And as Washington prepares for a holiday break..."
This bugs me. All over this country, people will be sneaking off from family celebrations--or missing them entirely--to write proposals, fix websites, run cash registers, drive taxis, answer customer complaints, and a multitude of other job demands that pale in comparison to this task.
Few of us do work that is actually as critical as averting yet another national economic crisis. We don't get to walk away from our work for the holidays. Neither should they.
Well put, I have a choice and could probably get away with it, but I wouldn't think of going home with something unresolved that could make or break my company.
Just as an individual elected to the Presidency is the President of all Americans so is the Speaker of the House the elected leader of all the Representatives in the House. Until Boehner puts that reality into action there will be no bi-partisan approach to problem solving. Unless he puts that reality into action the Republican Party will join the ranks of the Whigs and Federalists.
2014 will come and Republicans will go......
As much as I hate Boehner, he is tasked with the job of herding cats. The radicals under his care will never blink and they will never fall in line. It is precisely that attitude that got them chosen to represent their corporate masters.
Unless someone could find a way to get the TP fools to "not show up" for a vote there is no way this country will emerge unscathed from their belligerence. Maybe someone should pull a few spark plugs or something? Now that is how dirty politics gets done!
Yeah, the GOP has ceased to be a party. Unfortunately, most of them seem determined to crash the economy and the country and take us all with them into irrelevancy.
The TP seems hell bent on disabling DC's ability to actually run the country. These @!$%#s are corporate whores, bought and paid for by plutocrats in think tanks who have been carefully laying the groundwork for a coup d'eta for 30 years. The TP morons are the monkey wrench that these corporatists have saddled our government with and they want them to bring the nation to its knees. Once that is done, these plutocrats can move their corporate entities into the power vacuum that results. They want the representative government weak and out of the way so that they can privatize every aspect of our lives, effectively minimizing the Constitution and replacing it with the fine print of a take it or leave it business contract. It's all about the Benjamins people. Benjamins and power. They do not care about the shining city, or about Ol' Glory, they only care about their vacation homes and corporate empires. We are a commodity to them and they are cornering the market on us.
STOP @!$%#ING VOTING FOR REPUBLICANS!!!!! They are poison to democracy and a well regulated economy that works for consumers.
God knows, and everyone else does too, that they have no intention of resolving anything, and that if taxes are going up, they're going up for everyone. Hopefully the stupid people that aren't wealthy that vote republican will get a clue that the right cares for no one but the rich. But I doubt it.
I doubt it too. The typical middle class GOP supporter has glue for brains.
My theory is that middle class GOP supporters all get timed-release epidurals after an election... So they can just hear what their masters said they would do without actually feeling what they really do.
This all goes to prove that the GOP/TP can't even work with itself!
Impeach or recall ALL the losers!
back in the day when we had STATESMEN instead of POLITICAL HACKS leading Congress, a Speaker or a majority leader would call his caucus together and crack heads to get votes. maybe do some horsetrading on legislation upcoming. and then he would go to the other cloakroom with the opposite party and get the rest of the votes he needed from the other side.
but Boehner is too afraid of the loose cannons in his ship to order "fire for effect."
stand up for America, and git 'r' done.
But the problem is just that - these aren't statesmen, they are saboteurs. The TP radicals went into the House with the expressed intent of stopping the US Federal government from doing its business. You can't cut deals with people like this. It's like negotiating with terrorists. Not having a deal is what they want!
Well, Speaker Boehner -- I honestly hope we DO go over that fiscal cliff. Then tax rates will rise on EVERYBODY. And you damn GOP idiots will GET the tax increase you've dreaded so badly. I HOPE it happens. Then the White House will begin fighting for tax relief for the rest of us making less than 250K per year. You want to FORCE the issue?? BRING IT ON!!
This Fiscal Cliff business is a result of the furor over raising the debt limit that got our credit rating lowered which is costing us millions of dollars. That occurred because The Speaker of The House had no control over his own caucus.
The Speaker still cannot control his own caucus.
After we go over the cliff just how does the GOP plan on arguing against a tax cut for 98% of the population?
The Tea Party came to town to fix what's wrong with Washington.
Now they are what's wrong with Washington.
The TP came to town to stop Washington not fix it. They are actually fulfilling all of their promises.
"Plan B" is the morning after Birth control pill.
Seems Boehner used it to cause his own party to abort.
God only knows when the some semblance of sanity will be restored to the GOP.
It's too late to happen. The GOP is on the verge of being worthless..
Mr. B indicates that he is not concerned about losing his job. If he really felt that way, he would present the President's proposal to the House and certainly gain a majority of votes (to include all Democrats and the relatively few "sane" Republicans).
Our credit score dropped not because we couldn't pay our bills but because of the perception that we couldn't come to an agreement for governance. Going over the fiscal cliff will not immediately devastate our economy but the perception that we couldn't come to agreement will devastate the economy. The few percentage points of taxation that the far right are insisting on preventing will be small potatoes to their losses in the stock market and real estate when we crash.
I am ashamed to say that these people represent me.
The GOP is officially a joke at this point. What a sad state of affairs for this great country.
Yeah, that's right. Take a break. You need it - you guys have been working hard. Don't worry about us. We'll manage somehow.
I am ashamed to say that these people represent me. They only represent themselves
I'd like to see that stupid smirk wiped right off Eric Cantor's face.
Cantor won't change. Goober Norquest just told him to screw his mother...