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Fiscal Talks Continue

President Obama held a meeting in the Roosevelt Room and a conference call with a bipartisan group of mayors, county officials and community leaders to discuss his proposals in the fiscal cliff negotiations.

The White House is reporting that the president spoke with Tampa, FL Mayor Bob Buckhorn;  St. Paul, MN Mayor Chris Coleman; St. Columbus, OH Mayor Michael Coleman; Bluffton, IN  Mayor Ted Ellis:  Dallas County, TX  Judge Clay Jenkins; Cincinnati, OH Mayor Mark Mallory;  Executive Russ Pry of Summit County, OH; Avondale, AZ Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers and Laredo, TX Mayor Raul Salinas.

Earlier this week, Micheal Steel, speaking on behalf of Boehner and company, made these comments.

"We sent the White House a counter-offer that would achieve tax and entitlement reform to solve our looming debt crisis and create more American jobs. As the Speaker said today, we're still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the 'balanced approach' he promised the American people. The longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff."

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters in yesterday's briefing the following, "Now, it is entirely our expectation that Republicans may not agree with all of our spending cuts; Republicans may want to propose additional spending cuts.  And the President has said that he is prepared to make tough decisions.  He has said that he's not wedded to every detail in this plan and that he understands that compromise requires all sides to accept something short of the ideal, and he's committed to doing that.  What we haven't seen from Republicans, to this day, is a single specific proposal on revenue, and, in fact, we've seen less specificity from Republicans on spending cuts than the President himself has proposed."


Congress, and the president have just little than more than two weeks to strike a deal that will prevent  taxes from going up on the middle class, while those earning $250,000 and more will not see an increase in their taxes.  Middle class families could save $2200 in taxes should the parties come to a neutral conclusion.

"We can solve this problem.  All Congress needs to do is pass a law that would prevent a tax hike on the first $250,000 of everybody's income, everybody", the president said speaking last week from a Michigan car manufacturing plant.  

"That means 98 percent of Americans and probably 100 percent of you, 97 percent of small businesses wouldn’t see their income taxes go up a single dime.  Even the wealthiest Americans would still get a tax cut on the first $250,000 of their income.  But when they start making a million, or $10 million, or $20 million you can afford to pay a little bit more."

"You're not too strapped.   So Congress can do that right now.  Everybody says they agree with it.  Let’s get it done."

Related

Reports indicate that the president did make a counteroffer to Boehner & Co. on Monday. The details of the offer aren't readily available, but multiple reports state that it calls for $1.4 trillion in additional revenue. That number is $200 billion less than what the administration initially proposed.




  




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