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Democrats, Republicans apart on key "fiscal cliff" issues: Reid
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is shown in this C-Span video footage as he addresses the Senate during an unusual session on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 30, 2012. Hopes rose on Sunday that U.S. lawmakers could reach at least a limited deal to prevent the still-recovering economy from tumbling off a ''fiscal cliff'' at the New Year, sending the country into another recession.
Credit: Reuters/C-SPAN/Handout
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Sunday that Democrats and Republicans still had key differences in talks to avert a looming year-end "fiscal cliff," and he had not been able to make a counteroffer to the latest Republican proposal.
"I've had a number of conversations with the president and at this stage we're not able to make a counteroffer," Reid said on the Senate floor.
He said that as the day wears on, Democrats may be able to make such an offer.
"I think that the Republican leader has shown absolutely good faith. It's just that we're apart on some pretty big issues," Reid added. (Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
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The reason Obama is targeting the wealthy for a tax increase is because that’s where all the money is. Obviously the poor don’t have it and now the Middle Class no longer have money to spare. The cost of living has been steadily rising while wages have remained stagnant. The Middle Class is stretched to the breaking point. And I could write volumes on how the wealthy have utilized their wealth to gain tremendous advantage by infiltrating our government with their campaign cash to the point where we have come to accept the most ridiculous economic terms that are all to their advantage and to the detriment of the rest of us.
Healthcare is a prime example. There’s nothing rational about our healthcare system. It’s the most inefficient system in the world. We pay far more per person for our healthcare than the country with the next most expensive system, and still there are millions who go uncovered. Yet not only do we accept it, but the Republicans have gotten away with insisting that it’s the only system appropriate for America, which is insane. Anything else is evil. But it’s all about the profits and the campaign cash that is funneled to our elected lawmakers.
With all of our focus on the government, we’ve taken our eyes off of the other sources of authority in our nation: industry. There is a collection of individuals, titans of industry, who hold the real power in this country. Ironically, and very frustratingly, while the right, driven primarily by the TeaParty, are insisting on a smaller, weaker government, the real sources of power only grow stronger and will be the ultimate beneficiaries of a government small enough to drown in a bathtub, as Grover Norquist puts it. If we could put an end to lobbying and adopt public financing of elections, then we would regain our influence on our government and govern ourselves as we were meant to by our Founders. But if we go the route that the rightwingers are insisting, reducing the federal government to a weak, feckless entity, the leaders of industry will fill the leadership vacuum and we won’t have ANY influence over them. It’s almost like a trap, and the rightwing masses, not smart enough to see the trap, are doing everything in their power to drag this nation into that trap. If they succeed, it’s game over for our representative democracy. We will be the blueprint for the modern day feudal system.
“Both parties should be able to agree that we can not continue the deficit spending.”
Why? Tell us why. Don’t just parrot something you heard on Fox as though it is biblical truth. Explain, with specifics, why deficit spending that has worked without problem for the entire history of the USA, cannot continue.
“Cox Fox sez so” is not a good enough reason.
TheNewWorld wrote:
“We do not want to have $1,000,000,000,000 (One Trillion Dollars), being eaten up out of the budget in 2020 for interest on the debt.”
Whose crystal ball did you pull that one from? I think I can guess…
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