WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker John Boehner met with Treasury Secretary Tim
Geithner on Thursday and accused Democrats afterwards of failing to outline
specific cuts to avert a fiscal cliff that threatens to send the economy into
recession.
"No substantive progress has been made between the White
House and the House" in the past two weeks, the Ohio Republicans told reporters
after the private meeting in his Capitol office.
"I was hopeful we'd see a specific plan for cutting
spending and we sought to find out today what the president really is willing to
do," Boehner said.
The speaker has said that Republicans are willing to
endorse higher tax revenues as part of any deal to prevent across-the-board tax
increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect at year's end, but only as
part of a deal that includes savings from Medicare and other government benefit
programs.
Boehner spoke by phone with President Barack Obama on
Wednesday night, and said his remarks Thursday were the result of that
conversation, as well as the session with Geithner.
Geithner had a later session on his schedule with Senate
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as well as Congress' top
Democrats.
On Wednesday, the two sides maneuvered for political
position.
"We have not seen any good-faith effort on the part of
this administration to talk about the real problem that we're trying to fix,"
said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.
Obama is mounting a public campaign to build support and
leverage in the negotiations, appearing at the White House with middle-class
taxpayers and launching a campaign on Twitter to bolster his position.
"Right now, as we speak, Congress can pass a law that
would prevent a tax hike on the first $250,000 of everybody's income," Obama
said. "And that means that 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small
businesses wouldn't see their income taxes go up by a single dime."
Obama is insisting that tax rates go up on family income
exceeding $250,000; Boehner is adamant that any new tax revenues come from
overhauling the tax code, clearing out tax breaks and lowering rates for
all.
Republicans are also demanding significant cuts to
so-called entitlement programs like Medicare, such as an increase in the
eligibility age for the program from 65 to perhaps 67.
"It's time for the president and Democrats to get serious
about the spending problem that our country has," Boehner said at a news
conference Wednesday in the Capitol. Boehner, like Obama, expressed optimism
that a deal could be reached.
At issue are steep, across-the-board cuts to the Pentagon
and domestic programs set to strike the economy in January as well as the
expiration of Bush-era tax cuts on income, investments, married couples and
families with children. That combination of tax increases and spending cuts
would wring more than half a trillion dollars from the economy in the first nine
months of next year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
No one anticipates a stalemate lasting that long, but many
experts worry that even allowing the spending cuts and tax increases for a
relatively brief period could rattle financial markets.
From their public statements, Obama and Boehner appear at
an impasse over raising the two top tax rates from 33 percent and 35 percent to
36 percent and 39.6 percent. Democrats seem confident that Boehner ultimately
will have to crumble, but Obama has a lot at stake as well, including a clear
agenda for priorities like an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.
Obama is also meeting privately Thursday with his defeated
Republican rival Mitt Romney. The president has cast his victory over Romney as
a sign that Americans back his tax proposals, which were a centerpiece of his
re-election campaign.
While in Washington, Romney will also meet with his former
running mate, Ryan. The Wisconsin congressman is chairman of the House Budget
Committee and deeply involved in the fiscal cliff discussions.
