On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told the House Republican Conference to not make plans for Christmas because of the impasse in the budget negotiations.
CBS News reported Republicans leaving the meeting with Boehner said the House Speaker’s remarks indicated “there were no indications” that “any real progress has been made between the two chief negotiators involved in the process: Boehner and President Obama.”
Obama’s initial offer to avert the fiscal cliff, which included $1.6 trillion in new taxes and unprecedented powers for him to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally without Congressional approval, did not even get the support of his own party.
After starting off the negotiations by conceding taxes would increase, the Speaker made a counteroffer that included $800 billion in tax revenue without serious discussions about entitlement reform. Now, Boehner has asked for a permanent extension of all of the Bush income tax rates during a “very tense” telephone conversation with Obama this week.
As CBS notes, Obama “dismissed that position as unacceptable and said he would put forth no counter-proposal until Boehner and House Republicans relented to increase income tax rates on households earning more than $250,000.”
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