Eau Claire (WQOW) - There's
just a few weeks left before the fiscal cliff of steep spending cuts and tax
increases kicks in. Congress is at odds about tax
increases to the wealthiest Americans.
The House of Representatives has
adjourned, and won't return until next Tuesday. That may be a sign that
negotiations are getting nowhere fast.
"We should be in session. The fact that they
cut us loose and sent us home and have us return next week means that
negotiations are at a bit of a standstill right now," says Representative Ron
Kind (D-3rd District).
With neither side willing to budge, negotiations
over the looming fiscal cliff are frozen. A plan to avoid the massive spending
cuts and tax hikes has been passed in the Senate, but Republicans say the
president's proposal gives him the power to raise the debt limit.
"He is not
particularly interested in avoiding the Fiscal Cliff, and he is clearly not
interested at all in cutting any spending. What the president is really
interested in, as we learned just yesterday, is getting as much taxpayer money
as he can first by raising taxes on small business that he believes are making
too much money, and then on everybody else," say Senate Minority leader Mitch
McConnell.
Representative Ron Kind says both
sides need to be willing to negotiate.
"In all
probability, it will likely entail having to vote for something with one hand
and holding your nose with the other, because there will be things in it that
neither side will particularly like or care for," says Rep. Kind.
Congressman Kind says if nothing
gets done before January first, there isn't necessarily reason to panic.
"It's not really a
cliff or a brick wall, it's more like a fiscal slope. The spending cuts are
phased in over 10 years, the tax rate changes don't happen right away so there
is time on January 2nd, 3rd or 4th to make some changes, even then," Kind says.
But the longer the wait, the more
nervous investors and businesses owners may become.
"You can't be
certain what the market reaction might be, if people start losing confidence,
if things start going south again. We're starting to turn the corner with this
economic revival, jobs are starting to be created, you'd hate to see us lapse
back into a short term recession," says Kind.
House
speaker John Boehner and the president spoke on the phone yesterday, the first
time in about a week. Nothing has leaked from that conversation, which analysts
say could be a sign of progress.
