McConnell to take entitlement talks lead, Boehner in back seat

[Draggingtree]

The Hill:

McConnell to take entitlement talks lead, Boehner in back seat

 

By Alexander Bolton - 01/09/13 05:00 AM ET

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is poised to play a bigger role in negotiations to reform entitlement programs in the wake of the tax deal he helped forge last week.

Lawmakers see the passage of a bill to extend most of the Bush-era income tax rates and settle the question of estate, capital gains and dividend tax rates as a template for how to move the next installment of deficit reduction.

That would mean moving bipartisan legislation first in the Senate and put McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky, in the driver’s seat.

“I think he’ll play a major role. I think he and Vice President Biden have a good working relationship, and it appears to be one of the few good working relationships that the administration has with members of Congress on the Republican side of the aisle,” said former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who was one of McConnell’s most trusted advisers and is a columnist

[Draggingtree]

Dear Mr. Speaker

 

By: frang8c (Diary) | January 9th, 2013 at 10:00 AM

Since it is obvious from the recent “fiscal cliff”negotiation you have never played poker and have no idea how to negotiate to win, let me offer you some free advice on winning the debt ceiling debate. President Obama won because he was willing to go over fiscal cliff and he knew you would not. Now here is my negotiation points to President Obama.

Dear President Obama; You continue to insist we do not have a spending problem in this country despite the fact you have added $6 trillion of debt in your first term. Your own CBO projects a deficit of $22 trillion by end of your second term, this is unacceptable.

We have reached the debt ceiling limit, so Congress has to approve any more deficit spending so here are my terms.

1)The $800 billion slush fund known as stimulus is gone. No more Cash for your corporate cronies to get rich off, that takes our spending down to roughly $3 trillion, still too high.

2)An additional 10% across board cut for all departments

http://www.redstate.com/frang8c/2013/01/09/dear-mr-speaker/