Is a fiscal deal emerging?

[SemiAuto]

TNR. Mostly speculation still but here are the main points.

There would be new revenue, slightly in excess of $1 trillion over ten years. The money would come from households with high incomes; exactly how high is not yet clear.
...
There'd be cuts to spending, somewhat larger than what Obama put on the table. The deal would call for adjusting cost-of-living increases in Social Security, known as the "chained CPI," but it would not raise the Medicare eligibility age. The rest of the cuts would be unspecified, left for Congress to work out on its own. Some kind of automatic cuts would kick in if Congress failed to find the money.

Boehner also proposed an incremental increase in nation's debt ceiling, effectively giving Treasury enough borrowing power to cover the government's bills for the next year.
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The deal would likely include some steps to help sustain the recovery—it would extend unemployment insurance, once again, and it would dedicate some money to infrastructure.

Looks like can-kicking to me. If the cuts and revenue add up to $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion over 10 years then in about 2 years of trillion dollar deficits you're right back where you started.

Going over the cliff would be preferable to such a deal.

[MithrilKnight]

Can-kicking looks like capitulation to me.
Obama keeps taking less on taxes and adds more on cuts, while Boehner does nothing.

I agree 100%, go over the cliff.

Thanks to Republican Bush Law, taxes go back to where they were for EVERYONE. Cuts in military and discretionary spending, good. Hell, it's only like 8% cut on average.
That's 0.8% cut to budgets per year for 10 years. That's LESS than growth rate, so all they're really talking about doing is reducing the amount of INCREASE by 0.8% a year.

This is fine. It'll force the various departments to restructure how they work, get more efficient where they can, and then when the next President is elected in 4-years, they'll just raise the budgets on all those things anyway...

[ms maggie]

TNR. Mostly speculation still but here are the main points.


Looks like can-kicking to me. If the cuts and revenue add up to $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion over 10 years then in about 2 years of trillion dollar deficits you're right back where you started.

Going over the cliff would be preferable to such a deal.

I agree there should be deeper and more immediate cuts. Raising the age for Medicare doesn't really help much though.

[soulflower]

Can-kicking looks like capitulation to me.
Obama keeps taking less on taxes and adds more on cuts, while Boehner does nothing.

I agree.

[CajunRaven]

And yet the right keeps complaining that Boehner is giving the farm away.

[flyboy56]

Can-kicking looks like capitulation to me.
Obama keeps taking less on taxes and adds more on cuts, while Boehner does nothing.

I agree 100%, go over the cliff.

Thanks to Republican Bush Law, taxes go back to where they were for EVERYONE. Cuts in military and discretionary spending, good. Hell, it's only like 8% cut on average.
That's 0.8% cut to budgets per year for 10 years. That's LESS than growth rate, so all they're really talking about doing is reducing the amount of INCREASE by 0.8% a year.

This is fine. It'll force the various departments to restructure how they work, get more efficient where they can, and then when the next President is elected in 4-years, they'll just raise the budgets on all those things anyway...

What cuts exactly is Obama talking about. He is including cutting the interest on the national debt as cutting spending???????

[soulflower]

What cuts exactly is Obama talking about. He is including cutting the interest on the national debt as cutting spending???????

Congress has already voted for 1.2 trillion in spending cuts.

Obama shouldn't agree to any further spending cuts unless republicans agree to raise the debt ceiling

[Struds]

Congress has already voted for 1.2 trillion in spending cuts.

Obama shouldn't agree to any further spending cuts unless republicans agree to raise the debt ceiling

This is from the OP: Boehner also proposed an incremental increase in nation's debt ceiling, effectively giving Treasury enough borrowing power to cover the government's bills for the next year.

[johnpolitics]

The defense budget lives of course. There is a catch, if Congress can't agree, automatic cuts. Congress can't agree on anything.