Obama Says Republicans Given ‘Fair Deal’

“When you think about what we’ve gone through over the last couple months — a devastating hurricane, and now one of the worst tragedies in our memory — the country deserves us to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good,” Mr. Obama said before television cameras and reporters during a noontime appearance at the White House.

The president, with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was there to announce that he would propose gun control measures in January. But when he invited questions, the first several were on the state of his troubled talks on a year-end budget deal with Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio.

“Frankly, up until a couple days ago if you looked at it, the Republicans in the House and Speaker Boehner were in a position to say, ‘We’ve gotten a fair deal.’ The fact that they haven’t taken it yet is puzzling,” the president said.

While Republicans are resisting further tax increase concessions by Mr. Boehner — the speaker has now proposed a scaled-back “Plan B” that would allow tax rates to rise only on income of $1 million and above, which the president threatened to veto should it reach his desk — Mr. Obama also has had to answer questions in his party about his own tentative compromises.

In particular, some liberals say that he has broken a campaign pledge to keep Social Security out of the deficit-reduction talks, by giving tentative support to a Republican demand that the government adopt a new inflation formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments. That would slightly reduce the growth in Social Security benefits from what they would be under the current inflation index.

Recalling his campaign, Mr. Obama countered, “What I said was that the ultimate package would involve a balance of spending cuts and tax increases. That’s exactly what I have put forward. What I have said is, in order to arrive at a compromise I am prepared to do some very tough things, some things that some Democrats don’t want to see — and probably there are a few Republicans who don’t want to see them, either.”

After Dec. 31, the Bush-era tax cuts will expire and spending cuts will be made in domestic and military programs if the two sides can’t reach a deal. Both parties are trying to avoid that outcome, but they disagree on the income level at which taxes should go up, and how deeply to cut future Medicare spending.

Mr. Boehner, having conceded support for raising the top income tax rate, is demanding that a 39.6 percent rate — up from 35 percent — apply only to income of $1 million and above. Mr. Obama, who has long proposed a $250,000 threshold for couples and $200,000 for individuals, has moved that line to $400,000 in recent negotiations but refuses to go to $1 million.

Referring to Mr. Boehner, he said, “If you’re making $900,000, somehow he thinks that you can’t afford to pay a little more in taxes.”

“The principle that rates are going to go up, he’s conceded,” the president said. “I’ve said I’m willing to make some cuts. What separates us is probably a few hundred billion dollars. The idea that we would put our economy at risk because he can’t bridge that gap doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

The president said he would continue to have discussions with the speaker and others. But he put the ball back in the Republicans’ court and potentially set them up for blame if the two sides fail to reach an agreement: “Right now their job is to make sure middle-class taxes do not go up and that we have a balanced, responsible package of deficit reduction.”

Separately, Mr. Boehner and House leaders were preparing for a House vote as early as Thursday on the speaker’s scaled-back plan.

In trying to line up votes, Republicans circulated word that Grover Norquist, the longtime anti-tax advocate, had blessed Mr. Boehner’s plan as compliant with his “taxpayer protection pledge.” Since most Republicans have signed the pledge, Mr. Norquist effectively has locked in their votes against any tax increases.

But Mr. Norquist seemed to bend his longstanding, absolutist principles to issue the endorsement, perhaps to maintain his relevance in tax debates. Even senior Republicans have said publicly that his pledge is a deterrent to resolving the nation’s fiscal problems, given increasing bipartisan acknowledgment that higher tax revenues are required along with spending cuts to control the growth of federal debt in an aging population.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/politics/obama-says-republicans-given-fair-deal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss