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Obama: "modestly optimistic" fiscal cliff deal can be reached
U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement to reporters after meeting with congressional leaders at the White House in Washington December 28, 2012. Obama held out hope for a last-minute agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff of tax increases and spending cuts after a meeting with congressional leaders, scolding Congress for leaving the problem unresolved until the eleventh hour.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama held out hope for a last-minute agreement to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts after a meeting with congressional leaders, scolding Congress for leaving the problem unresolved until the eleventh hour.
"The hour for immediate action is here," he told reporters at the White House. "I'm modestly optimistic that an agreement can be achieved," he said.
Obama and lawmakers are working to prevent around $600 billion in combined federal spending cuts and tax increases, a shock economists say could stop the economic recovery in its tracks and perhaps reverberate beyond U.S. shores.
The president, who won re-election on a platform that included a pledge to raise taxes on top earners, said Senate leaders were working right now to craft a bipartisan measure that could win approval in both houses of Congress.
But if those last-ditch efforts were to fall short, lawmakers should hold a vote on a "bare minimum" measure that would extend existing tax rates for all but the wealthiest Americans and extend unemployment insurance, he said.
Obama took Congress to task for stalling on negotiations in a manner that is reminiscent of the 2011 stalemate that brought the nation close to the brink of defaulting on its debt and that hurt the economic recovery.
"This is déjà vu all over again," he said.
"America wonders why it is that in this town for some reason you can't get stuff done in an organized timetable," he added. "Well, we're now at the last minute."
The president said the latest budget impasse was once again harming economic growth.
"Already you're seeing businesses and consumers starting to hold back because of the dysfunction that they see in Washington."
(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal; editing by Todd Eastham)
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The President and Senate have already catered to them time after time and look where its gotten us. A longer than needed slower than needed recovery from this recession. House members who sit in their offices doing exactly nothing but standing up to veto whatever comes before them on nearly any measure then back to playing pacman or wow on the taxpayers dime.
I have no optimism left. This has been the most sickening absurd 2 years I’ve ever witnessed.
USMCPatriot: It’s not Obama and Reid who are refusing to deal with our financial problems. Unless you understand how we got here, you can’t understand how to properly fix this mess. We had balanced budgets until Bush and the Republicans cut taxes and took us to war, twice. Understand this: Until Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, American Presidents always raised taxes to pay for wars we engaged in. War is not free. It costs lives of our soldiers and tax dollars. Bush and the Republicans were more concerned about the public’s attitude toward their wars than they were about actually doing the right thing. They wanted people to forget about the wars and to just go about their business, and enjoy the tax cuts. It was bad govening and grossly irresponsible. They should have raised taxes to pay for our wars, not cut them. Let’s not continue their error. It’s time to pay for those wars. Better late than never.
And just to give you some perspective, the US has some of the lowest taxes among all developed nations. Taxes are also at historical lows. Common sense will tell you that we can’t afford historical lows at this point in time. And if you want to cut spending, don’t just say you want to cut spending. State what you want cut, and understand the consequences.
The biggest drain on our tax dollars are defense and healthcare. Both need to be cut, but both can be accomplished through greater efficiency. We can spend less on defense and actually improve our fighting capabilities. And understand that we can never get a grip on healthcare costs until we change how we do healthcare and start lowering the costs. Just cutting people off of Medicare and Medicaid won’t solve the problem. We can’t afford to have the most inefficient healthcare system in the world. Are you aware that the Republicans put into law a restriction that prevents Medicare from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug costs? That’s insane. They did it to protect the profits of the pharmaceutical industry in exchange for campaign donations. Also, several Republicans left government shortly after the bill was passed and went to work for the pharmaceutial industry making millions. This was part of Bush’s Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. All of that is true.
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