Hill leaders confident they’ll reach a deal
Abundant unity, few details on ‘fiscal cliff’
President Barack Obama took time at Friday’s budget meeting to acknowledge House Speaker John Boehner’s 63rd birthday Saturday. He later gave Boehner a bottle of Italian wine.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Leaders of Congress declared confidence Friday they could reach a deal with President Barack Obama to avert economically convulsive tax increases and budget cuts at year’s end, in a rare show of unity reflecting the dire stakes in a nation sick of political stalemate.
“I believe that we can do this,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after top lawmakers met with Obama at the White House.
Significantly, that tone emerged from every corner of divided government— Obama spokesman Jay Carney, top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
While all sides sought to assure weary consumers, edgy investors and wary employers that the nation would not plunge over the “fiscal cliff” come Jan. 1, they furnished precious few details on how they planned to proceed.
“We understand our responsibility,” said Pelosi, DCalif. “I feel confident that a solution may be in sight.”
That solution exists only in the broadest sense, with Republicans conceding that any bargain to cut the debt must include tax revenue, and Democrats acknowledging there must be spending cuts to a host of major programs relied upon by millions of Americans.
Any solution would likely be in two phases, with steps now to avert a crisis and promises of a broader tax reform process in 2013.
None of the lawmakers mentioned a big sticking point — Obama’s insistence that tax rates go up, as scheduled, at the start of the year for individuals making over $200,000 a year and families earning over $250,000. Republicans flatly oppose that step.
Obama said the goal was to prevent a tax hike for middle-class families, create jobs and keep the economy growing.
“That’s an agenda that Democrats and Republicans and independents, people all across the country share,” Obama said. “So our challenge is to make sure that we are able to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground.”
Boehner said he put forward a plan that meets Obama’s goals of “balance.” “To show our seriousness, we’ve put (tax) revenue on the table, as long as it’s accompanied by significant spending cuts,” he said later. Hundreds gather early Friday in Midland, Texas, some holding flags, for a prayer service to honor and pray for all those involved in the train accident on Thursday.