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BREAKING

Obama Has Already Rejected GOP's Fiscal Cliff Counter-Offer

New Republican plan allegedly lacks 'balance'

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: AP

The White House has released a statement rejecting the Republican fiscal cliff counteroffer just hours after they made it. Communications director Dan Pfeiffer explained that the Republican plan "does not meet the test of balance":

In fact, it actually promises to lower rates for the wealthy and sticks the middle class with the bill. Their plan includes nothing new and provides no details on which deductions they would eliminate, which loopholes they will close or which Medicare savings they would achieve. Independent analysts who have looked at plans like this one have concluded that middle class taxes will have to go up to pay for lower rates for millionaires and billionaires.

Here's the Republican proposal - $2.2 trillion saved:

- $800 billion in tax revenue (keeping Bush tax cuts for all)

- $600 billion in Medicare/Medicaid cuts

- $800 billion in savings from federal agencies and programs like farm subsidies and Social Security

And here's Obama's original proposal - just under $2 trillion saved:

- $1.6 trillion in tax revenue (eliminating Bush tax cuts for incomes over $250,000)

- $400 billion in Medicare/Medicaid cuts

- $50 billion stimulus spending

Via USA Today.
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • joyshusband
    !
    We're running trillion dollar deficits annually, they're talking about saving two trillion over ten years, leaving at least 800 billion deficits annually for the next ten years, why don't we just file the bankruptcy papers now, why wait?
  • HughAkston
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    Isn't the logic of going into debt $8 Trillion over ten years but claiming victory because they saved us $2 Trillion over the same ten year period profoundly stupid.
  • Jeff_Woehrle
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    Exactly. It seems Washington wants to tout their ten year numbers just to try to offset what happens in ONE YEAR in the real world. America is Greece. Looks like nothing can be done to stop it.
  • Zazziness
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    Really? Then why is it the Republicans who want to pamper the rich and protect them from having to pay their fair share? Moochers.
  • Zazziness
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    @HughAkston We all earned out money. Some of us by actually producing something instead of merely gambling on the stock market.
  • Post Removed by Moderators

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  • PNWest
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    Taxes will be going up for the top 2%. The GOP proposal is a joke. More tax cuts for the wealthy. More benefit cuts for the poor and middle class. The GOP has a choice, either do the right thing and give 98% of Americans a tax break or drive the economy off of a cliff and face massive defeats in 2014. Either way America wins in the long run.
  • o
    Republican5001
    !
    I vote to press the accelerator...punch it baby! drives us off the cliff! He who has the money is in control of everything!! Lets go off the cliff. My wife and I have taken the necessary steps to protect our family and are prepared for the inevitable.
  • HughAkston
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    @Republican5001 I've done the same thing guy. Punch it baby! Let's go over that cliff. It's about time the looters and moochers find out where they stand in the scheme of things. If the looters and moochers ever hope to live a decent life again, it will be on OUR moral terms.
  • PNWest
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    @InjusticeSucks I think that the GOP will drive the economy over the cliff rather than piss off the baggers. BTW did you steal Tralee's avatar?
  • PNWest
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    @HughAkston @Republican5001 - Thanks for helping to put the final nail in the GOP's coffin. Good riddance.

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  • u
    Middleman
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    Obama wants to be sure his peeps get theirs (and there are a lot of them)... He loses face if he agrees to any program reforms. Both sides have backed themselves into corners and worse yet Obama thinks he got a mandate to do it.... What a bunch of BS... I remain of the opinion taxes can go up as long as the increase is matched by real tangible cuts in social programs. I would go after everything except SS for those over 55 already, Medicare again for those over 55 and veterans benefits. I still struggle with the concept I have to pay more percentage wise because I earn more ( can you say tax reform ie flat tax ) just for the record I earn less than the 250k.. Way less.... Ok... I am rambling. How about everyone just take a bite out of the giant $hit sandwich we all have in front of us and work together to make it go away. Congress = Jacka$$.... Pay off the debt and then figure out how to do all the good works you want... But pay cash... Just like my grandparents did!
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    Exactly. Once a 50 erecent decrease in military spending begins and W tax cuts drive tax rates for the richest to 39 percent the repubs will feel the pain. They should have took what he offered last year. If he is smart he will offer even less to em this time, if the repubs are stupid enough to reject, which i hope the are, they will end up with even less because Obama will not only have to negotiate with repubs, but with the left wing of the dem party, which will not see why they should restore as much military as obama would offer, and may not deliver obama the votes to cut social programs when they could just continue military cuts already authorized by law...
  • DARSB
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    Did the GOP not learn anything from the election? Failing to specify the details didn't work for Gov Romney and it's not looking any better now.
  • cat2009
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    He hasn't given the ok and he never will adhere to anything that the GOP proposes. Has anybody ever seen a rattlesnake smile well take a good look at Obama this snake bites.
  • PNWest
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    Obviously you missed the election results. It's going to be a very long time until the American people let the GOP run things.
  • PNWest
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    @ST_Louie_Sue The ONLY reason that the GOP has control of the house is because GOP state legislators gerrymandered congressional districts. The dems got about 1,000,000 more congressional votes than the GOP. The GOP is on the way out. They are just not quite through the door yet. :)
  • DARSB
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    Ezra Klein makes a good point, "Republicans are in a far weaker position than they were in 2011. And Boehner knows it. His newest offer is proof. In 2011, it was Obama chasing after Boehner with compromise proposals. In 2012, it’s the reverse.

    It is not surprising that Boehner wishes he could go back in time and accept the president’s offer from 2011, or fight for the compromise Bowles outlined before the supercommittee. Those are, from his vantage point today, quite good deals. But elections have consequences, and the consequence of this election is that those offers are no longer on the table."
  • FollowTheMoney
    !
    My feeling is neither party is interested in solving any problems. If they were, they would be talking about repealing laws. Replacing the tax code with a Flat tax and massive cuts in government agencies thus increasing revenue and cutting spending.
  • o
    Big-R
    !
    This is just more proof both sides want the fiscal cliff to happen. If it does, then no one is responsible, and no one is locked into a vote which could haunt them later. Even if both sides meet in the middle of their proposals, it is a joke. Neither proposal is anywhere near what it is going to take to save this country. Both proposals are like sticking a Mickey Mouse band-aid on a sliced jugular vein.
  • PNWest
    !
    After the results of the election the GOP will be blamed if we go over the cliff unless it is quite clear that they have been willing to compromise. Obama has done a masterful job of painting them into a corner where they can either abandon their Grover Norquist pledge and raise taxes on the plutocrats or stand their ground and raise taxes on all of us while refusing the democrats offer to lower taxes for 98% of us. Good news for the dems, bad news for the reps. The GOP got into this mess because they thought that they would be stronger in the house and senate after the election. They ended up weaker and now they'll pay for this miscalculation.
  • Vance1
    !
    Obama Has Already trashed our country with his so called Stimulus money.
    Enough with the Obama Money already.
    We have learned thru out history that "Liberal Stimulus" never works.
    When you give someone a Handout, It makes them feel entitleld to more handouts.
    Cut it all right now ........The USA doesnt need to be GREECE in two yrs.
    Obama laying more debt onto our children and grand children.
    Stop the spending now!!!! Republicans stand your ground against the Socialists!!!
  • Dan_Tien
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    I would like to see Congress vote to lower their own medical safety net if they are going to raise the age of Medicare eligibility to 67. Their plan will save money by letting people die before they are a tax burden.
  • u
    Jim49418
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    WOW, thats a shock, all we've heard from Obama lately is that he wants the GOP to compromise, but when they do, he refuses their compromise. Over the cliff we go!
    I'm prepared, I dont care anymore. All of you window licking Obama lovers can suck it, and stop your whining when your taxes go up, or you lose your entitlements.
  • Zazziness
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    @Jim49418 Mr. Romney wanted to. I'm in the middle class and he was pretty sure I could afford to pay more. He was wrong, btw.
  • u
    Jim49418
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    @Zazziness I dont remember Romney saying that, but hey, if you say so.....

    The Fact is, we are going to have to pay for this administration's spending binge sooner or later,....right?

    Might as well go over the so called cliff now. It doesnt look like this administration is willing to compromise at all.
    Evidently, Obama thinks you can pay more, but thats o-k!
  • Zazziness
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    @Jim49418 We'll have to pay for the binge spending in Iraq first. I didn't hear so much concern from the conservatives when the money was going to blow people up. Odd, that.

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  • Tralee
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    Well, looks like Obama's been caught in another lie. All during the campaign he said he was going to work differently with the GOP and was going to negotiate and compromise to solve our problems, so much for that pipe dream. I never figured his ego would let him compromise or even try to work with the other side. I think he want's to go over the cliff and have all the tax cuts expire, after all, the majority of the money is in the middle class and they pay only about 25% of the taxes while about 30 to 35% of the money is in the top 2% who pay almost 60% of the taxes, he'll get enough to run the WH for about a week from the so called rich, he'll get more from the middle class. He's looking just like a typical progressive, tax and spend, all gimme, gimme, gimme and nothing in return but the smoke and mirrors of the "savings" for ending the war, well I just save us a million, I didn't buy another house, that's about what that savings is all about. Then there is the now undisputed medicare money taken to pay for Obamacare, remember they denied this over and over during the campaign, nah, no billions were taken out of Meidcare, that was just a lie from the republicans, except now that's a supposed cut in entitlements, of course how that can be a cut is just more Obamaspeak. Take money from one entitlement to fund another entitlement is not a cut in entitlements, it's just a shifting of money, money that was lied about during the campaign.
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