WASHINGTON — Senate leaders said Friday they would spend the weekend attempting to patch together a last-minute budget deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, after President Obama and some lawmakers said they were optimistic they could engineer an agreement despite a week of doubt and stalled negotiations.
“I’m hopeful and optimistic,’’ said Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, in a marked departure from the partisan jibes and finger-pointing that have marked most of the public dialogue in recent days.
Comments
Obama didn't try to avoid the cliff today. He MANUFACTURED the Fiscal cliff last year. When he announced in the afternoon that he was not changing his position one iota, the DOW fell 150 points. Then he announces that Congress is disfunctional as if he has nothing to do with the problem. And he does NOT want to help the economy grow because less government would then be needed.
I want to again thank our elected "Feerles Leaders" for destruction of our 401Ks ! But what do they care they get their full pension and seperate full comprehensive healthcare (not Obama Care) after just one term of office, (not a bad bad job). No matter what pain they vote on for us they just exempt themselves and we allow it ??
Odd my stocks did extremely well over the last 4 years. I'd suggest taking a second look at your portfolio.
As to Healthcare, members of Congress and Federal Employees have long received their healthcare under a plan very much like Obamacare. Employees get to choose from a very large number of providers through a federal exchange which Obamacare tracks to fairly closely. So well you may have some legitimate complaints on various issues these two you seem to lack any understanding of these two.
How much does congress pay for their health care? What percentage? I have always wondered that.
"Obama plans to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday to make his case for passing legislation before the deadline, the network announced Friday night." So we are going to hear some more "My Way or the Highway" and Blame the GOP and Blame Bush campaign rhetoric from Obama.
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It sometimes seems to me the need to protect one's political view overwhelms the ability to recognize reality. None of the participants have much to crow about regarding this problem. However, some commentors seem to lack even an understanding of the basic facts. First of all, Obama didn't create the fiscal cliff, Congress did that on its own. It passed legislation to that effect during the "debt ceiling" debacle. That's not hard to look up, it's there on the books.
Second, there is a political reality at play here. The President won re-election based on the argument that he would raise taxes on all income above 250K. The first 250k is exempt from the increase for everyone. Now while you or I may not like that it is apparent that the rest of the country does. They voted for him.
Third, the main reason we are stuck here is that Boehner can't get anything through his caucus that comes close to meeting the election results. On the last negotiating session they were a mere 20bil apart per year, but Boehner couldn't get that done either. He couldn't pass a tax hike on everything over a million that he proposed. So the partisans can go ahead and hammer away at each other, but please try to get the facts right.
Obama signed the bill. That means he agreed. Remember, he has line item veto power. He agreed. Further, the doc fix is a Clinton era law that tried to tie Medicare payments to the GDP. It was good law then and it is is good law now. Leave it alone. Finally, how much higher do we want the debt ceiling. Will 17 trillion be enough?
Quite a microscopic observation of this Presisident's foundation for re-election. While hard to argue that the gross congressional disfunction would take a back seat to cause and effect here, to suggest that Obama, before or during the campaign had a tangible fiscal plan, then delivered and sold it as the basis to re-election reality - well, I think your mistaken. No doubt, They voted for him, but there are a lot of Theys out there that a rest of the country these do not make.
taxes on the rich is plain class warfare that has nothing to do w/ stimulating the economy.
The beginning of the year has traditionally been a time of optimism when we all look forward to the exciting things that are going to happen over the next 12 months. Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of things about 2013 that we already know are going to stink. Taxes are going to go up, good paying jobs will continue to leave the country, small businesses will continue to be destroyed, the number of Americans living in poverty will continue to soar, our infrastructure will continue to decay, global food supplies will likely continue to dwindle and the U.S. national debt will continue to explode.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-28/16-things-about-2013-are-really-going-stink
Have you ever considered that good paing jobs are leaving the country because large corporations want to see American wage scales to match those of Southeast Asia. Did you ever consider that "free trade" may well be destroyng the American economy? Not saying it is so..... but?
play today?
The French court struck down the 75% tax rate. Obama must be confused
Alright "be" you must be confused. Your into French law now?
Geez "be" you're really going R factually challenged. The Court, "The court's ruling took issue not with the size of the tax, but with the way it discriminated between households depending on how incomes were distributed among its members."
It rejected based on a technicality not the size of the rate.
This is a "technical" point in response to a comment by Chorus earlier today. The US President does not currently have recourse to the line-item veto. Presidents briefly held such authority under the Line Item Veto Act of 1996. However, the US Supreme Court struck down that act in 1998 in Clinton v. City of New York.