Obama warns of prolonged fiscal cliff talks
To urge voters to put pressure on Republicans to pass an extension of tax cuts for middle-income Americans
President Barack Obama and US House Speaker John Boehner each demanded the other compromise as they ended a week of public jockeying for advantage in fiscal cliff negotiations with a standoff over taxes.
Obama, warning of “prolonged negotiations,” used a campaign-style appearance yesterday in Pennsylvania to appeal for help from voters to put pressure on Republicans in Congress to pass an extension of tax cuts for middle-income Americans as a first step toward resolving the impasse. That would leave decisions on reworking the tax code and cutting spending until next year.
“It’s not going to be enough for me to just do this on my own,” Obama said on the floor of a toy factory in Hatfield.
Boehner, speaking less than a half-hour later in Washington, said the administration plan presented to congressional leaders by Treasury Secretary Timothy F Geithner would risk growth by raising taxes on small businesses. He said it left talks no further along than they were before the election.
“There’s a stalemate, let’s not kid ourselves,” he said.
The deadlock over whether to continue Bush-era tax rates for the top 2 percent of wage earners extends a battle that has been waged for more than a year between Obama and Republicans in Congress. The issue has gained more urgency as the clock ticks down on more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to start taking effect in January.
Obama has proposed a framework that would raise taxes immediately on top earners and set an August 1 deadline for rewriting the tax code and deciding on spending cuts, according to administration officials.
It calls for $1.6 trillion in tax increases, $350 billion in cuts in health programs, $250 billion in cuts in other programmes and $800 billion in assumed savings from the wind-down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the officials, who asked for anonymity.
Obama, speaking at a facility of the Rodon Group that makes Tinkertoys and K’NEX building sets, said quick action by lawmakers to extend tax cuts for middle-income Americans -- while letting top rates rise -- would allow time for tougher negotiations on spending cuts to lower a budget deficit that has exceeded $1 trillion for each of the four years he has been in office.