Reid: GOP Abandoning 'Serious Negotiations' to Avert Fiscal Cliff

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said House Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans “have threatened to abandon serious negotiations” to avert the fiscal cliff and warned Boehner’s Plan B counteroffer “will not pass the Senate.”

According to The Hill, Reid is “reviewing what to do if the House passes the fallback measure and sends it to the upper chamber” and “one option would be to amend it to lower the threshold for extending tax rates.”

Reid also “declined to say whether he could support the proposal reportedly considered by the White House to use a new formula for calculating Social Security cost-of-living adjustments” and said “Obama has not heard from Boehner since making a new counteroffer Monday.”

“He hasn’t heard a word from him,” Reid said.

The Hill noted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “would support Boehner’s plan as it would shield the vast majority of the nation from tax increases,” but his preference is that “taxes not go up on any subset of the public.”

Obama’s initial proposal to Republicans, which included $1.6 trillion in new taxes in addition to giving him unprecedented powers to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally, could not even get the support of his own party.