So Who Will Blink?

Yesterday President Obama suggested that some....yes, some Republicans had begun to soften their opposition to increased tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, but sharply warned the GOP against looking to tie their budget fight to an upcoming debate over whether to increase the debt ceiling.

Speaking in Washington before a group of corporate leaders, Pesident Obama suggested some rank-and-file GOP lawmakers might relent in opposing increased income tax rates for the wealthiest earners, meaning Washington might be closer to an agreement on the fiscal cliff than principal negotiators' public comments might suggest.

“I think there's a recognition that maybe they can accept some rate increases as long as it's combined with serious entitlement reform and additional spending cuts. And if we can get the leadership on the Republican side to take that framework, to acknowledge that reality, then the numbers actually aren't that far apart,” Presisdent Obama told members of the Business Roundtable this morning.

 “Another way of putting this is, we can probably solve this in about a week. It's not that tough. But we need that conceptual breakthrough that says we need to do a balanced plan; that's what's best for the economy; that's what the American people voted for; that's how we're going to get it done.”he added.

Negotiations toward resolving the fiscal cliff, the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect on New Years Day, seem to have hit a brick wall after House Republicans and President Obama each offered countervailing proposals to address the looming combination.  Why must they turn every thing into a western stand off? Why must everything this President suggests turn into a battle of wills??

The  latest stalemate involves the question of whether tax rates are allowed to increase for the top earners. On one hand,Republicans say they are willing to ask the wealthy to shoulder a larger share of the tax burden, but only through ending deductions and loopholes in the tax code. Thing is...They never define what these loopholes are.

"Now the revenues that we are putting on the table are going to come from, guess who? The rich," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill. "There are ways to limit deductions, close loopholes and have the same people pay more of their money to the federal government without raising tax rates, which we believe will harm our economy."

President Obama, in his appearance shortly following peak of the house,Boehner's press conference, argued that closing those deductions would not raise the type of revenue needed to establish the "balanced" approach on which he campaigned. The president also said that the GOP plan would harm philanthropic and charitable giving.
(Doesn't he know...They don't care about any of that?)

As the opposing sides race toward the end-of-December deadline, a New York Times report on Wednesday suggested that Republicans might turn, as a fallback position, to authorizing an extension of current tax rates for all but the wealthiest Americans (this was essentially the president's initial request of lawmakers following the election).

But the report also suggested that Republicans might then use an impending need to authorize more borrowing authority, a point at which the GOP might have more leverage, to extract the kinds of spending cuts and tax and entitlement reforms for which Republican leaders have pushed during this fall's fiscal cliff talks.

Why...Why..Why.. Why must they turn every thing into a western stand off? Why must everything this President suggests turn into a battle of wills??

Moving on.. In Referencing that report, the president sternly warned Republicans against tying another increase in the debt ceiling to a fiscal fight -- a scenario which would risk reigniting the debt talks during the summer of 2011, during which the government was brought to nearly the brink of default due to partisan differences.

"I have to just tell you, that is a bad strategy for America, it's a bad strategy for our businesses, and it's not a game that I will play,"  President Obama said.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are currently set to depart for their holiday recess, though John Boehner has said that he would remain in Washington, ready "at any moment" to sit down with President Obama and negotiate...

So here we are...at the brink of near disaster....Who will blink?  Stay tuned folks!