MORNING MESSAGE: GOP Offers to Throw Middle Class, Elderly Over the Fiscal Cliff
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "This rehash of their old, rejected budget ideas is a formula for reducing the United States of America to a crumbling and poverty-haunted land where the young have no opportunities, the middle class is struggling to survive, and the aged live in misery and fear. Think we’re exaggerating? Take a look at the details, such as they are, and decide for yourself."
GOP In Vice On Taxes
"In Tax Fight, G.O.P. Seeks a Position to Fall Back On" reports NYT: "Senior Republican leadership aides say they are contemplating a fallback position since a standoff over expiring tax rates will be portrayed by Democrats as evidence that the opposition is willing to allow taxes to rise on the middle class to keep taxes from rising on the rich … if no deal can be struck … they could foresee taking up and passing legislation this month to extend the tax cuts for the middle class and then resume the bitter fight over spending and taxes as the nation approaches the next hard deadline: its statutory borrowing limit, which could be reached in late January or February … But any move toward compromise with Democrats on fiscal issues quickly comes under attack from conservatives as a surrender and unsettles the rank and file."
President digs in on raising tax rates for wealthy. W. Post: "'We’re going to have to see the rates on the top 2 percent go up. And we’re not going to be able to get a deal without it,' Obama told Bloomberg Television … Senior Republican aides said the White House offered no additional response to the plan, maintaining a stony silence."
GOP tax deduction plan suffers from many land mines. NYT: "Nonpartisan analysts say Republicans are correct that it is possible to raise $800 billion or more from limiting deductions for the affluent. But, they add, any such proposal would face big political hurdles given the popularity of the tax breaks at issue — especially for charitable donations, mortgage interest, state and local taxes and employer-provided health insurance. And if Congress did pass such a plan, it could further complicate tax filing for many people. 'The trick is targeting that only on high-income folks — that’s not administratively simple,' said Roberton Williams, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. 'You’ve got to figure out how you protect the people below the threshold and then how you phase it in for the people above the threshold so there’s not a cliff.'"
Senate GOP leaders won't endorse House GOP proposal. Politico: "…it points to a party still struggling to find a way out that doesn’t destroy its reputation with the activist base or take the nation over the fiscal cliff."
Republicans would get blame from public if no deal struck. W. Post: "…according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll … By nearly 2 to 1, more respondents said Republicans in Congress would be to blame if there is no deal…"
President Rejects Benefit Cuts
President dismisses Medicare cuts to beneficiaries in Bloomberg interview: "BLOOMBERG: Most of your entitlement cuts have been to providers, so you’d be open to cuts to beneficiaries? OBAMA: Well, no, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, I’m happy to look at how we can actually make those entitlement programs stronger, reduce health-care costs over the long term. I actually think that the proposals that we’ve put forward that have $600 billion in additional cuts in mandatory spending, you know, contain a lot of good ideas. I’m happy to entertain other ideas that the Republicans may present."
Republicans resist President's stimulus proposal. NYT: "The Obama administration is arguing that the sluggish economy requires a shot in the arm, and it included tens of billions of dollars of little-noticed stimulus measures in its much-noticed proposal to Congressional leaders last week. But Republicans have countered that the country cannot afford to widen the deficit further, and have balked at including the measures in any eventual deal [even though] recent economic data has come in surprisingly weak."
Reid Promises Filibuster Reform
Sen. Harry Reid says filibuster reform is happening, no matter what. TPM quotes: "We’re going to change the rules. We cannot continue in this way. So I hope we can get something Republicans will work with us on. But it won’t be a handshake. We tried that last time; it didn’t work.”
Elizabeth Warren expected to be named to Banking Cmte. Politico: "Warren — now with a Senate seat, a key committee perch and a loyal liberal following from her time on the campaign trail — appears well positioned to take on the industry she made her national reputation criticizing. But industry leaders say they’re not bracing for battle, insisting that far from fearing Warren, they’re confident they’ll have a productive relationship with the new senator."
Former President Bush joins immigration reform push: "Mr. Bush spoke at the opening of a conference highlighting the benefits of immigration hosted by an institute in Dallas that bears his name and by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He described immigrants as a bedrock of the nation’s economy, providing new skills and ideas while filling critical gaps in the labor market. But he also presented the question in more human terms in a state that has been a home to huge numbers of immigrants. 'Not only do immigrants help build our economy, they invigorate our soul,' Mr. Bush said."
Michigan May Pass Anti-Union Legislation
MI legislature considers so-called "right to work" legislation. Bloomberg: "A compromise may be forged with unions on the issue by tomorrow, averting a vote. No right-to-work legislation has been introduced for consideration in the lame-duck session that ends later this month. If such a measure passed, Michigan would become the second Midwest industrial state to adopt a mandatory dues ban in the past year, following Indiana in February. [Gov.] Snyder previously dismissed the issue as divisive and 'not on my agenda,' while stopping short of saying he’d veto a right-to-work bill."
One-day strike to organize fast-food workers part of new effort to unionize low-wage earners. NYT: "'We must go back to the strategies of nonviolent disruption of the 1930s,' suggests Stephen Lerner, a veteran organizer and strategist formerly at the Service Employees International Union, one of the unions behind the fast-food strike. 'You can’t successfully organize without large-scale civil disobedience. The law will change when employers say there’s too much disruption. We need another system.'"
