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....Must get re-elected at all costs...must get re-elected at all costs....Originally posted by racrguyOriginally posted by racrguy -
A deal has been madeComment
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5 minutes ago
Details emerge in fiscal cliff agreement
Posted by
CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin and CNN White House Producer Gabriella Schwarz
Washington (CNN) – A deal was reached between Congressional leaders and the White House late Monday night, according to a Democratic source.
The agreement brokered by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was later signed off on by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during calls with President Barack Obama, said a source familiar with the deal.
The same source said the plan postpones the sequester by two months, half paid for through tax revenue and half paid for through spending cuts. Half of the spending cuts stems from defense spending and half from non-defense spending.
The individual $5 million exemption level for the estate tax, an element supported by Republicans, will remain. But that cap is indexed to inflation, meaning it will increase every year, according to the same source, an element incorporated at the insistence of moderate Democrats.
Additionally, the “Doc Fix,” payments to doctors who take Medicare patients that the GOP wanted, will continue but will not be paid for by the Affordable Care Act.
The tentative agreement also includes a one year extension of unemployment benefits and will allow income taxes for individuals making $400,000 a year and households making $450,000 to return to the Clinton-era rate of 39.6%.
The deal resolves other outstanding sticking points by including an extension in tax credits for child care and tuition. It also caps itemized deductions, starting at a threshold of $250,000 for individuals and $300,000 for households.
I wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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I'm not seeing Boehner signing off on this yet. So how can they say a deal was reached?I wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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Matt is going to be pissed his Popo dollars and FT's choo choo dollars are going to get a 40% taxI wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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now they are saying that they made a deal.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/l...-politics.html
Racing to beat a midnight deadline, Vice President Joe Biden arrived on Capitol Hill Monday night to sell wary Democratic senators on an 11th-hour deal to avert income tax hikes on all but a sliver of the richest Americans.
Grinning broadly, Biden ignored reporters questions on whether he and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had finally forged a compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that threatened the still-fragile economy with a new recession. "Happy new year," he replied.
But a Democratic Senate aide told Yahoo News that "the White House and Republicans have a deal," while a source familiar with the negotiations said President Barack Obama had discussed the compromise with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and "they both signed off."
The apparent agreement set up a Senate vote late Monday or possibly in the wee hours of Tuesday. The House of Representatives was due back at noon on Tuesday to take it up.
Under the compromise arrangement, taxes would rise on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households, while exemptions and deductions the wealthiest Americans use to reduce their tax bill would face new limits. The accord would also raise the taxes paid on large inheritances from 35% to 40% for estates over $5 million. And it would extend by one year unemployment benefits for some two million Americans.
Biden, a 36-year Senate veteran, worked out the agreement with McConnell after talks between Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner collapsed.
But with time running short, the country appeared on track to go over the cliff at midnight -- though quick congressional action, and the fact that financial markets were to be closed on New Year's Day, were expected to limit the damage.
“Today, it appears that an agreement to prevent this New Year's tax hike is within sight, but it's not done,” Obama said in hastily announced midday remarks at the White House. “There are still issues left to resolve, but we're hopeful that Congress can get it done – but it’s not done.”
"One thing we can count on with respect to this Congress is that if there is even one second left before you have to do what you’re supposed to do, they will use that last second," he said.
Obama’s remarks – by turns scolding, triumphant, and mocking of Congress – came after talks between McConnell and Biden appeared to seal the breakthrough deal.
Efforts to modify the first installment of $1.2 trillion in cuts to domestic and defense programs over 10 years -- the other portion of the “fiscal cliff,” known as sequestration -- had proved a sticking point late in the game. Democrats had sought a year-long freeze but appeared to have caved to Republican pressure and signed on to just a two-month delay. That would put the next battle over those cuts right around the time that the White House and its Republican foes are battling it out over whether to raise the country's debt limit. Republicans have vowed to push for more spending cuts, equivalent to the amount of new borrowing. Obama has vowed not to negotiate as he did in 2011, when a bruising fight threatened the first-ever default on America's obligations and resulted in the first-ever downgrade of the country's credit rating.
Experts had warned that the fiscal cliff's tax increases and spending cuts, taken together, could plunge the still-fragile economy into a new recession.
“I can report that we’ve reached an agreement on all of the tax issues,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “We are very, very close to an agreement.”
The Kentucky Republican later briefed Republicans on the details of the deal. Lawmakers emerged from that closed-door session offered hopeful appraisals that, after clearing a few last-minute hurdles, they could vote on New Year’s Eve or with 2013 just hours old.
“Tonight, I hope,” Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee told reporters. “It may be at 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning. Oh, I guess that’s technically tomorrow.”
Republican Senators said negotiators were still working on a way to forestall two months of the “sequester” spending cuts, about $20 billion worth. And some expressed disquiet that the tentative compromise ran high on tax increases and low on spending cuts -- while warning that failure to act, triggering some $600 billion in income tax increases on all Americans who pay it and draconian spending cuts, was the worse option.
McConnell earlier had called for a vote on the tax component of the deal.
“Let me be clear: We’ll continue to work on finding smarter ways to cut spending, but let’s not let that hold up protecting Americans from the tax hike,” McConnell urged. “Let’s pass the tax relief portion now. Let’s take what’s been agreed to and get moving.”Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., followed by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., second from right, leaves …
The final compromise needed to clear the Democratic-led Senate and Republican-held House. Aides in both chambers doubted that could happen by midnight – but emphasized that there was no need to move the family into the Doomsday bunker in the back yard. Yet.
Unlike a college student who writes an end-of-semester paper overnight before a morning deadline, then drops the assignment off hours after it was due, Congress can write its own rules to minimize the damage – and Americans whose taxes are staying the same won’t see a change in their bottom line.
“It’s basically a matter of saying it’s effective January 1,” one senior Republican aide shrugged.
But passage was not a sure thing: Both the AFL-CIO labor union and the conservative Heritage Action organization argued against the package.
The breakthrough came after McConnell announced Sunday that he had started to negotiate with Biden in a bid to "jump-start" stalled talks to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Under their tentative deal, the top tax rate on household income above $450,000 would rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent -- where it was under Bill Clinton, before the reductions enacted under George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.
Some congressional liberals had expressed objections to extending tax cuts above the $250,000 income threshold Obama cited throughout the 2012 campaign. Democrats were huddling in private as well to work out whether they could support the arrangement.
Possibly with balking progressives in mind, Obama trumpeted victories dear to the left of his party. "The potential agreement that’s being talked about would not only make sure the taxes don’t go up on middle-class families, it also would extend tax credits for families with children. It would extend our tuition tax credit that’s helped millions of families pay for college. It would extend tax credits for clean energy companies that are creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil. It would extend unemployment insurance to 2 million Americans who are out there still actively looking for a job."
Obama said he had hoped for "a larger agreement, a bigger deal, a grand bargain," to stem the tide of red ink swamping the country’s finances – but shelved that goal.
"With this Congress, that was obviously a little too much to hope for at this time," he said. "It may be we can do it in stages. We’re going to solve this problem instead in several steps."
The president also looked ahead to his next budgetary battle with Republicans, warning that “any future deficit agreement” will have to couple spending cuts with tax increases. He expressed a willingness to reduce spending on popular programs like Medicare, but said entitlement reform would have to go hand in hand with new tax revenues.
“If Republicans think that I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone … then they’ve another thing coming,” Obama said defiantly. “That’s not how it’s going to work.”
“If we’re serious about deficit reduction and debt reduction, then it’s going to have to be a matter of shared sacrifice. At least as long as I’m president. And I’m going to be president for the next four years, I hope,” he said.Comment
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Notice the bold and the red, hopefully he knows something.....Comment
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Well...I thought it was complete shit going over the cliff for the House to vote for a tax cut...BUT when you get automatic spending cuts, then you go back to current tax rates (tax cut) you still get the spending cuts. Hopefully the fiscal cliff cuts would be so big when they renegotiate spending next year, they wont let the Dems spend as much as they want.
The senate reached a deal but the house wont vote until later...so no real nothingComment
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House Republicans should tell them to get bent. Zero spending cuts in this packageI wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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I think they should get rid of the overarching bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security, and the TSA. They're redundant, inefficient, and cost far more than they're worth.ZOMBIE REAGAN FOR PRESIDENT 2016!!! hehComment
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Not a chance. Railroad Retirement decided this was a good year to up the % all Railroaders should pay into the system and I think that was good move. I'd rather put money in my retirement account than Uncle Sams wallet. Plus I've got my 401k maxed out. Not to mention this is the very reason my wife is quiting her job next month because all we do is pay taxes and add to that I'll have child to deduct. It's safe to say those assholes will get less money from me in 2013 than they have gotten from me in the last 5 years. The poor will have to pay and I love that.Originally posted by Forever_frost View PostComment
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FT, don't let this go to your head and I'll deny I said this but <deep breath>Originally posted by FreightTrain View Post
Good on you. Starve the beast.I wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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