House Speaker John Boehner announced Tuesday that he will put “Plan B” on the fiscal cliff on the ballot this week. Boehner says his up-to-date plan will protect as many taxpayers as possible and is a tax-only measure. More from National Journal.
Two congressional sources said the vote would likely take place on Thursday.
The tax-only measure is being called “Plan B” by Republicans, who see it as an alternative to the broader plan the speaker has been negotiating with the White House.
Talks between the White House and Republicans have yet to produce a broad agreement, but the two sides have grown closer in recent days.
One of the key questions is whether Boehner can sell out rank-and-file Republicans as part of any broader deal
President Obama will prevent automatic tax increases and spending cuts, known as the fiscal cliff.
More from AP:
House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday he is drafting an emergency bill to stave off the “fiscal cliff” because President Barack Obama has not yet proposed a balanced package of revenue and spending savings that would reduce the growing federal deficit.
Boehner’s solution would cancel tax increases that were scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1 for everyone making $1 million or less, while still allowing tax increases for people earning more than that amount.
“I’m still hopeful that we can reach a broader agreement with the White House” that would cancel the broad wave of tax increases and spending cuts that are scheduled to begin in early January, Boehner, D-Ohio, told reporters.
But he said that when it comes to offering a package that balances tax increases and spending cuts, “the president isn’t there yet.”
Boehner said the Republican Party’s efforts to limit Medicare savings by raising the age of eligibility for benefits from 65 to 67 could wait until next year. This source of savings was an essential Republican demand during Boehner’s previous negotiations with the White House.
Boehner’s aides said the call for a separate tax bill, which the speaker presented to his caucus Tuesday morning, does not mean the Republican is breaking off negotiations with Obama to avoid a full package of tax increases and spending cuts that are expected to take effect next year. year. Both Obama and Boehner have made significant concessions in recent days, signaling a up-to-date stage in negotiations.
The decision follows disagreements between Boehner and the White House over the tax augment threshold. Boehner proposed to President Obama a tax augment for people earning more than $1 million a year, to which Obama responded with a tax augment for people earning $400,000 a year, up from his original proposal to augment the rates to $250,000. The White House still has not outlined plans for spending cuts or entitlement reform.
In a letter to supporters, the conservative organization Heritage Action For America condemns the tax augment concessions that Boehner has already made.
On Friday, Speaker John Boehner reportedly made additional “concessions” to President Barack Obama. The plan is simply to give up: capitulating on taxes in favor of vague reforms that will do nothing to alleviate our nation’s fiscal problems.
By putting a $1 trillion tax augment on the table, Boehner is retreating from his previously held positions. Gone are the days when the Republican chief negotiator believed that “Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.” Raising tax rates was once considered “unacceptable.” Never again.
Just as bad, according to reports, Speaker Boehner is willing to include a debt ceiling augment in the final fiscal cliff deal. In other words, he proposes taking off the table the only mechanism capable of reining in reckless federal spending for another year.
Republicans in Congress and their consultants believe that raising taxes is simply a strategic retreat. Many of them believe that if we proceed calmly, conservatives will be able to fight for principles another day. They are wrong. Now is the time to act. Now is the time to fight. It’s time to stand up to GOP leadership.
President Obama has requested a two-year extension to the debt ceiling. Boehner he admitted Obama will extend it for a year and take the debt ceiling off the fiscal cliff negotiating table.
Rumors are already circulating about the security of Boehner’s position. During his tiny tenure, debt per American household increased by $18,944.
UPDATE: The White House rejects.
White House rejects Speaker Boehner’s ‘fiscal cliff’ ‘Plan B’; claims it doesn’t ask the richest Americans to pay enough taxes.
The White House quickly rejected House Speaker John Boehner’s alternative “fiscal cliff” plan on Tuesday, saying it falls tiny of eliminating tax breaks for the top 2 percent and forces the middle class, seniors and other vulnerable groups to shoulder the burden of the nation’s finances. load.
“I am unwilling to accept a deal that does not require sufficient taxes on the wealthy and instead shifts the burden to the middle class and seniors,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “The Speaker’s Plan B approach fails this test because it cannot pass the Senate, so it fails to protect middle-class families and does little to address our fiscal challenges with zero spending cuts.”
Carney’s statement came hours after it was reported that Boehner would unveil a up-to-date deal aimed at avoiding the “fiscal cliff” – automatic tax increases and spending cuts that take effect after January 1. The up-to-date proposal would raise taxes on incomes above $1 million and include $1 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years.
UPDATE III: The White House is so uncompromising that you can’t even agree with it Nancy Pelosi.
House Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” to avoid the fiscal cliff would cut taxes on incomes below $1 million – a higher threshold than the White House is requesting, but which would have a powerful supporter, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
In May, Pelosi sent Boehner a letter calling for immediate middle-class tax cuts to that level, while President Barack Obama was in the middle of a campaign calling for tax increases on incomes above $250,000. The White House has since revised that $400,000 target in ongoing negotiations with Boehner, but has given no indication it will accept the $1 million level.
“Democrats believe that tax cuts for people making more than $1 million a year should expire and that we should use the proceeds to pay down the deficit,” Pelosi said in the letter.
A month earlier, on The Charlie Rose Show, Pelosi went further, noting Democratic opposition to the $250,000 figure.
“There is a school of thought in our caucus that says we will get rid of all tax cuts,” she said. “In my opinion, let’s start by getting rid of tax cuts for people making over a million dollars a year. I’m not even saying $250,000. The president says $250,000. A million and more. Who can argue with that?”
It is becoming increasingly clear that Obama is not interested in a deal. He has been repeating for a year that he wants tax increases for millionaires and billionaires. Boehner gave it to him and he still refused.
