Obama Urges Senate Leaders to Put Together a Tax Deal
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: December 29, 2012
WASHINGTON — President Obama urged Congress on Saturday to put together a last-minute tax deal over the weekend to avert large tax increases and budget cuts next year, or at least stop the worst of the economic punch from landing beginning Jan. 1.
“Leaders in Congress are working on a way to prevent this tax hike on the middle class, and I believe we may be able to reach an agreement that can pass both houses in time,” Mr. Obama said during his weekly address. “We just can’t afford a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy.”
Senate aides went to work behind closed doors Saturday morning after Democratic and Republican leaders expressed optimism that a deal could be reached. After weeks of fruitless negotiations between the president and Speaker John A. Boehner, Mr. Obama has turned to Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader — two men who have been fighting for dominance of the Senate for years — to find a solution.
The speaker, once seen as the linchpin for any agreement, essentially ceded control to the Senate and said the House would act on whatever the Senate could produce.
Senate Democrats want Mr. McConnell to propose an alternative to Mr. Obama’s final offer and present it to them in time for a compromise bill to reach the Senate floor on Monday and be sent to the House. Absent a bipartisan deal, Mr. Reid said he would accede to the president’s request to put to a vote on Monday a plan to extend tax cuts for all income below $250,000 a year and to renew expiring unemployment compensation for as many as two million people, essentially daring Republicans to block it and allow taxes to rise for most Americans.
In the Republican weekly address, Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri said the responsibility for crafting a deal rested with Mr. Reid and his majority in the Senate. “The Republican-controlled House has taken a step in the right direction,” Mr. Blunt said. “The House has already passed bills to protect all Americans from the burdensome tax increases.”
He added, “But instead of working across the aisle and considering the House-passed plan to protect taxpayers, Senate Democrats have spent months drawing partisan lines in the sand.”
On Saturday, bipartisan agreement still hinged on the Senate leaders finding an income level above which taxes will rise on Jan. 1, most likely higher than Mr. Obama’s level of $250,000. Quiet negotiations between Senate and White House officials were already drifting up toward around $400,000 before Friday’s White House meeting. The two sides were also apart on where to set taxes on inherited estates.
But senators broke from a long huddle on the Senate floor with Mr. McConnell on Friday night to say they were more optimistic that a deal was within reach. Mr. McConnell, White House aides and Mr. Reid were aiming for a breakthrough as soon as Sunday.
“We’re working with the White House, and hopefully we’ll come up with something we can recommend to our respective caucuses,” said Mr. McConnell, who has played a central role in cutting similar bipartisan deals in the past.
The emerging path to a possible resolution appeared to mirror the end of the protracted stalemate over the payroll tax last year. In that conflict, House Republicans refused to go along with a short-term extension of the cut, but Mr. McConnell reached an agreement that permitted such a measure to get through the Senate, and the House speaker essentially forced members to accept it from afar, after they had left forChristmas recess.
This time, the consequences are more significant, with more than a half-trillion dollars in tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts just days from going into force, an event most economists warn would send the economy back into recession if not quickly mitigated. With the House set to return to the Capitol on Sunday night, Mr. Boehner has said he would place any Senate bill before his chamber and let the vote proceed and the chips fall. The House could also change the legislation and return it to the Senate.
If the Senate is able to produce a bill that is largely bipartisan, there is a strong belief among House Republicans that the same measure would pass the House, with a large number of Republicans. While Mr. Boehner was unable to muster enough votes for his alternative bill that would have protected tax cuts for income under $1 million, that was because the measure lacked Democratic support, and was roughly a few dozen votes shy of passage with Republicans alone. |
Thread abonnieren
