| To: Vendit™ who wrote (42944) | 1/1/2013 2:12:02 PM | | From: Vendit™ | | | | This bill deal is dead on arrival in the House
Vendit
Deficit 'fiscal cliff' bill actually spends $330 billion more
The "fiscal cliff" deal that was designed to save money actually includes $330.3 billion in new spending over the next decade, according to the official estimate the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday afternoon.
CBO said the bill contains about $25.1 billion in new cuts, but those are swamped by the new spending on extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and other new refundable tax credits that President Obama fought for.
Of those cuts, only $2 billion are scheduled to take effect in 2013.
And CBO also warned that some of the cuts Congress is counting are from programs on which CBO never expected the money to be spent anyway — such as cuts to the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan, which was part of Mr. Obama's health care law.
All told, the bill deepens the deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade, when the new tax cuts and spending are combined.
The bill also delays by two months the automatic spending cuts slated to take effect Wednesday, with a promise to reduce spending in the future to cover for them.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/jan/1/deficit-fiscal-cliff-bill-actually-spends-330-bill/#ixzz2GkiA8VJJ
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter |
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| To: chartseer who wrote (42947) | 1/1/2013 4:10:47 PM | | From: Vendit™ | | | | Senate-passed 'fiscal cliff' agreement in trouble in House
The Senate’s New Year’s Eve compromise on the "fiscal cliff" hit major turbulence in the House on Tuesday, and the Republican majority is likely to try to amend the bill and send it back to the Senate, House Republicans said.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told his conference he is flatly opposed to the Senate bill without more spending cuts, members said as they emerged from a nearly two-hour Republican meeting in the Capitol.
The sizeable objections among House Republicans to the Senate approach risks scuttling the deal worked out by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden on Monday. That deal passed early Tuesday in the Senate by 89 to 8 votes.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) did not express opposition or support, but conducted the conference meeting as an open forum, members said.
Spokesmen for Boehner and Cantor issued an unusual joint statement after the meeting, saying there was “universal concern among members” about the Senate bill.
“The Speaker and Leader laid out options to the members and listened to feedback,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck and Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper said. “The lack of spending cuts in the Senate bill was a universal concern amongst members in today’s meeting. Conversations with members will continue throughout the afternoon on the path forward.”
GOP leaders plan to reconvene the rank-and-file around 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
According to sources in the room, Cantor said that he did not "support" the Senate-backed bill but stopped short of saying he would vote against it if the House took it up on the floor.
Boehner told his conference that he was "shocked" that so many Senate Republicans voted for the bill, but he would not indicate how he felt personally about the direction the House should move in.
"He said he was not in favor of the Senate bill," Jones said of Cantor. "I think the Speaker was as open today as I have ever seen him to the will of what the conference wants."
"This is really the first time I have seen an opposition between the two leaders on something so consequential," Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) said. "I was pretty clear the Speaker said we'll do what you want, maybe we'll do it, and [Cantor] said nope, we've got to have spending cuts."
The Republican budget chief and 2012 vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), stayed quiet in the meeting, Huelskamp said.
At this point, House GOP leaders are meeting to hammer out a way forward that could include taking the bill up as-is and letting it pass with primarily Democratic votes or amending it in some way that would garner at least 218 House GOP votes, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) told The Hill.
The general consensus among House GOP lawmakers, however, was that the Senate-passed bill spends too much and cuts too little.
“They will come back with amendments or some other strategy options,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said.
Multiple Republicans said they doubted a majority of the GOP conference would back the bill unamended on the floor, meaning Democrats would have to provide most of the 217 votes needed for passage.
House Democratic leaders said they supported the Senate bill and urged the Republican majority to bring it to the floor Tuesday for an up-or-down vote.
The House must act by Thursday at noon, when the 112th Congress adjourns. Once the 113th Congress begins, the Senate would have to re-pass its legislation. Lawmakers said they were also aware of the potential for a significant negative reaction in financial markets on Wednesday if a deal to prevent tax increases is scuttled.
Economists have said the U.S. economy could tip back into recession if the full slate of tax increases and spending cuts that comprise the fiscal cliff take effect because of congressional failure.
House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) said the House would decide later today whether to amend the bill with spending cuts.
"I would be shocked if this bill is not sent back to the Senate," he said.
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Tex.) said the House would seek to make changes that “were in the ballpark of what the Senate might say yes to.”
“There has to be some changes to this bill,” Conaway said.
Of particular concern to House Republican is the two-month delay in the $109 billion cuts to defense and non-defense spending. The $24 billion delay is partially paid for by new revenue gained by allowing more people to convert retirement accounts to Roth IRAs. The GOP wants the sequester replaced with spending cuts alone.
Senate Democratic leaders said Monday that they would reject any House effort to amend a fiscal cliff deal that passed the upper chamber with overwhelming support on New Year’s Day.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/275101-senate-fiscal-cliff-deal-in-trouble-in-house |
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| To: Vendit™ who wrote (42948) | 1/1/2013 5:16:54 PM | | From: sandeep | | | | | The congressional republicans should be punished with overwhelming losses in the next election. If they could just get past this, they can have whatever they want in the debt ceiling fight - from a high ground. Now they look like intransigent kooks. |
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