Congressional leaders at White House for fiscal-cliff powwow

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The Hill:

Congressional leaders gathered Friday at the White House for a last-ditch attempt to reach a compromise agreement for a debt deal.

President Obama met in the Oval Office with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also were in attendance at the closed-door meeting. The quartet arrived separately in black SUVs and quickly entered the West Wing; Vice President Biden, who also attended, entered the White House an hour earlier.

At the conference, the president will reportedly offer a "mini-plan" to avoid the looming fiscal-cliff deadlines at the end of the month. While the exact framework of the deal remains unclear, it appears that Obama will propose an agreement to extend the majority of the Bush-era tax cuts and disable the automatic defense budget cuts set to begin in January.

Still unknown is whether the president will insist on raising tax rates on annual income over $250,000, his first offer, or $400,000, as he had proposed earlier in the month.

The president is also likely to ask for an extension in unemployment insurance benefits, a freeze in scheduled cuts to doctors’ Medicare payments, and a package of "tax extenders" addressing expiring business and green energy tax breaks. Republicans, meanwhile, are thought to be seeking a continuation of the current estate tax rate, which is set at 35 percent with a $5 million exemption per spouse. That rate is set to jump to 55 percent.

White House aides were mum on Friday when asked what the president would be proposing in the meeting. But on Capitol Hill, optimism grew that some sort of deal could be struck.

“I don’t think much comes out of this meeting per se, but the preparation for the meeting and some of the things that are said in it could cause other conversations to occur. That is generally the way these things work,” Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) said.

________

 

Last-ditch effort.

[pollyannaish]

I am suspicious they are getting together to figure out who's bringing what to their big bipartisan fiscal cliff party.

[clearvision]

Press is saying Obama offered his old deal at 250K.

[Valin]

US Budget for Dummies

 

(Snip)

U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000

* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000

* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000

* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000

* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

 

Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:

 

* Annual family income: $21,700

* Money the family spent: $38,200

* New debt on the credit card: $16,500

* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710

* Total budget cuts so far: $38.50

(Snip)