White House to GOP: It’s Your Move
White House to GOP: It’s Your Move - KansasCity.com
The GOP deferred action on the cliff until they couldn’t put it off any longer, and now the drama is going to play out during Christmas. With that timing they can hide in the cloakrooms and perform their dirty dealings, screwing Americans while most of them are blithely shopping and prepping for the holidays. Right now it’s just the wonks watching.
The White House says Republicans should come clean about how much they’re willing to raise tax rates on the rich. Republicans counter that President Barack Obama’s latest plan is a joke that avoids tough decisions on the nation’s biggest entitlement programs, including Medicare.
It’s a game of political chicken as the clock ticks closer to the end-of-year deadline, when George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts kick in, sending the nation over a proverbial “fiscal cliff” that some economists say could plunge the fragile economy back into recession.
But based on the partisan rhetoric of those in charge of negotiating a deal, there’s not going to be a solution any time soon.
“They have to tell us what makes sense to them, and then we can take a look at it,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said of Republicans on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But what we can’t do is try to figure out what makes sense for them.”