Obama's opening "fiscal cliff" bid seeks debt limit hike, stimulus
(Reuters) - The Obama administration's opening bid on Thursday in negotiations
to avert a year-end fiscal crunch included a demand for new stimulus spending
and authority to unilaterally raise the U.S. borrowing ceiling, a Republican
congressional aide said.
The proposal, made by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to congressional
Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, was seen as offering little the Republicans
could agree to and was greeted with laughter, the aide said.
"We can't move any closer to them because they're not even on our planet,"
the aide said. "It was not a serious proposal."
Obama and congressional Republicans are returning to the bargaining table to
prevent across-the board tax increases and deep spending cuts, the so-called
fiscal cliff, from taking effect next year.
The president wants Bush-era tax breaks to be extended for all but the
wealthiest earners, but Republicans have balked at tax hikes of any
kind.
In the maiden bargaining session, Geithner, the president's lead negotiator,
proposed raising tax revenues by $1.6 trillion, congressional aides confirmed.
That figure is in line with what Obama has said is necessary to achieve
long-term deficit reduction of $4 trillion over 10 years.
The administration also sought at least $50 billion in new economic stimulus
spending.
Obama's negotiators also sought the ability to raise the nation's borrowing
limit unilaterally. Currently, Congress must approve an increase in the debt
ceiling, and it was an impasse over that issue that brought the country
perilously close to default in 2011.
The administration's proposal would put off across-the-board spending cuts
for a year.
In exchange the administration agreed to make $400 billion in spending cuts
to entitlement programs, an aide confirmed.
The White House had no comment on the details of the offer.
"The only thing preventing us from reaching a deal that averts the fiscal
cliff and avoids a tax hike on 98 percent of Americans is the refusal of
congressional Republicans to ask the very wealthiest individuals to pay higher
tax rates," a White House official said.
No comments:
Post a Comment