Outlook Cloudy for Fiscal 'Cliff' Deal

More public jousting from both sides in the "fiscal cliff" talks is expected on Wednesday in what has become a daily ritual of mutual "you go first" calls for more specifics in proposals to avert the steep tax hikes and budget cuts set for the end of the year.

On Tuesday the White House and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner traded offers still couched in broad and familiar terms that neither side found sufficiently detailed.

If the public back and forth between Boehner and President Barack Obama reflects what's happening behind the scenes, negotiations to avoid the cliff have a long way to go in the short time remaining in 2012.

Obama and Boehner each have proposed cutting deficits by more than $4 trillion over the next 10 years as a way of averting the cliff, but they differ on how to get there. Economists have warned that failure to strike a deal could send the economy back into a recession.

On Tuesday Boehner rejected what the White House viewed as a concession, shrinking the proportion of deficit reduction to come from revenue from $1.6 trillion over 10 years to $1.4 trillion. Boehner has called for $800 billion in revenue through tax reform.

There were also reports, unconfirmed by either side, that the White House has repeated a proposal it made in February to consider reductions in corporate tax rates.

That proposition is considered relatively uncontroversial compared to such politically sensitive matters as cutting entitlement programs such as Medicare, the government health insurance program for the elderly.

 

'PLAYING TO THE MEDIA'

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, commenting Tuesday on suggestions of vagueness in Obama's dealings with Boehner, responded by holding up copies of prior administration budget proposals that include, among other things, corporate tax reductions, and comparing them to the two-page offer that Boehner has sent to the White House.

A senior Republican fiscal hawk, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, faulted both sides for playing politics.

"There's no leadership in Washington either at the presidential level or the leadership level in Congress," Coburn said on CNN Tuesday night. "People are playing to the media rather than playing to the future of the country."

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul suggested in a Fox News interview late on Tuesday that, to get things moving, the House vote on the stickiest issue, whether to extend expiring tax cuts to all taxpayers except high-earners, as Democrats want, or to everyone, as Boehner wants.

Republicans would simply vote "present" on the Democratic plan, he said, allowing it to pass.

Let the Democrats approve a tax increase on upper-income taxpayers, he said.

But "do it with their votes, not our votes. Republicans vote present in the House. Democrats can pass the tax increase with only Democrat votes and then the Democrats are the parties of high taxes and the Republicans are the party of lower taxes. And I think that's the way it should be."