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| President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, on the White House campus in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012, about how middle class Americans would see their taxes go up if Congress fails to act to extend the middle class tax cuts. The president said he believes that members of both parties can reach a framework on a debt-cutting deal before Christmas. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The White House and a key congressional Democrat hinted at fresh
concessions on taxes and cuts to Medicare and other government benefit
programs Wednesday as bargaining with Republicans lurched ahead to avoid
the year-end "fiscal cliff" that threatens to send the economy into a
tailspin.
Increasing numbers of rank-and-file
Republicans also said they were ready to give ground, a boost for House
Speaker John Boehner and other party leaders who say they will agree to
higher tax revenues as part of a deal if it also curbs benefit programs
as a way to rein in federal deficits.
"I'll go
anywhere and I'll do whatever it takes to get this done," President
Barack Obama said as he sought to build pressure on Republicans to
accept his terms - a swift renewal of expiring tax cuts for all but the
highest income earners. "It's too important for Washington to screw this
up," he declared.
For all the talk, there was
no sign of tangible progress on an issue that marks a first test for
divided government since elections that assured Obama a second term in
the White House while renewing Republican control in the House.
"It's
time for the president and Democrats to get serious about the spending
problem that our country has," Boehner said at a news conference in the
Capitol. He, like Obama, expressed optimism that a deal could be
reached.
At the same time, he publicly
disagreed with one GOP lawmaker, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who said he
was ready to go along with Obama's plan to renew most but not all of the
expiring income tax cuts. "It'll hurt the economy" to raise rates for
anyone, said Boehner.
Separately, at a
closed-door meeting with the rank and file, the speaker told fellow
Republicans they are on solid political ground in refusing to let tax
rates rise. He circulated polling data showing the public favors closing
loopholes to raise revenue far more than it supports raising rates on
incomes over $250,000.
There were no
face-to-face talks between the administration and lawmakers during the
day, although the White House is dispatching Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner and top legislative aide Rob Nabors to a series of sessions
with congressional leaders on Thursday.
On
Wednesday, a group of corporate CEOs pushing for a deal met separately
with top Democratic and Republican leaders in the House, joined by
Erskine Bowles, who was co-chairman of a deficit commission Obama
appointed earlier in his term.
Speaking to
reporters before a session with business leaders, House Democratic
leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the bargaining ought to begin
where deficit talks between Obama and Boehner broke down 18 months ago
"and go from there to reach an agreement."
She
didn't say so, but at the time, the two men were exchanging offers that
called for at least $250 billion in cuts from Medicare over a decade,
and another $100 billion from Medicaid and other federal health
programs. Among the changes under discussion - with Obama's approval -
was a gradual increase in the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to
67, as well as higher fees for beneficiaries.
Also
on the table at the time was a plan to curtail future cost-of-living
increases for Social Security and other benefit programs.
Those
negotiations faltered in a hail of recriminations after the president
upped his demand for additional tax revenue and conservatives balked. At
the same time liberals were objecting to savings from Medicare and
Social Security.
Now, more than a year and one
election later, Obama has said repeatedly he is open to alternatives to
his current proposal to raise additional tax revenue. But he also says
he will refuse to sign legislation that extends the current top rates on
incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
Instead,
he is pushing Congress to renew expiring tax cuts for all income below
those levels as an interim measure - an offer Boehner and Republicans
generally say is unacceptable because it would mean higher taxes on
small business owners.
Bowles said during the
day that Obama might be willing to back off his demand that the top rate
revert all the way from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, where it was a
decade ago before tax cuts sought by then-President George W. Bush took
effect.
At the White House, spokesman Jay
Carney sidestepped questions. "If I told you how much flexibility the
president had, it would eliminate his flexibility," he said.
He
noted that Obama has said he will listen to alternatives, but the
spokesman said, "The most basic, simplest, most efficient way to achieve
that revenue target is by returning the rates for top earners back to
those that were in place in the Clinton era," when the top rate on
personal income was the 39.6 percent.
The goal
of the talks is to produce a long-term deficit-cutting deal that will
allow the cancellation of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for
the end of the year that numerous economists say threaten a new
recession.
While the obstacles are numerous, there are other political imperatives pushing the two sides toward an agreement.
Unemployment
benefits expire for some of the long-term jobless at the end of the
year. Additionally the government is expected to need an increase in
borrowing authority early next year or face the possibility of a
default. Any agreement on that is expected to raise the current $16.4
trillion level.
