![]() The Republican leadership, having made an initial concession in saying that it was willing to consider raising more revenues by eliminating loopholes, is now balking at the notion of higher tax rates and demanding more spending cuts. On the tax side, it is demanding a return to Clinton-era tax rates for the top two per cent of households on the spending side, it is basically restating the plans it laid out in its dead-on-arrival 2013 budget, which it released back in February. ![]() The Obama Administration, rightly sensing that it holds most of the high cards, is taking a tough line. In any complex negotiation, there is a large element of bluff, and the current back-and-forth merely represents a statement of opening positions. What’s going on? Is it time to panic? Will there be a resolution before the December 31st-January 1st deadline, when the Bush tax cuts are set to expire and a series of automatic spending cuts are scheduled to kick in? Not very much, no, and almost certainly. (Who knew that the White House chef, like many of the rest of us, is still repurposing uneaten Thanksgiving fowl?) Fortunately, John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House, stepped into the news vacuum, announcing, from the other end of town, after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, “No substantive progress has been made in the talks between the White House and the House over the last two weeks…there’s a real danger of going off the fiscal cliff.” Meanwhile, the Treasury announced that Geithner would be going on the Sunday talk shows this weekend to defend the Administration’s position, which might well inflame things further. ![]() ![]() The Mittster fled without saying what he and his nemesis talked about over grilled chicken salad and turkey chili. ![]()
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