Image of the Day

Robert Reich
So the bidding has begun.
According to the Wall Street Journal (which got the information from
GOP leaders), the President’s opening bid to Republicans is:
• $1.6 trillion in additional tax revenues over the next decade,
from limiting tax deductions on the wealthy and raising tax
rates on incomes over $250,000 (although those rates don’t
have to rise as high as the top marginal rates under Bill
Clinton)
• $50 billion in added economic stimulus next year
• A one-year postponement of pending spending cuts in defense
and domestic programs
• $400 billion in savings over the decade from Medicare and
other entitlement programs (the same number contained in
the President’s 2013 budget proposal, submitted before the
election).
• Authority to raise the debt limit without congressional
approval.
The $50 billion in added stimulus is welcome. We need more
spending in the short term in order to keep the recovery going, particularly
in light of economic contractions in Europe and Japan, and slowdowns in
China and India.
But by signaling its willingness not to raise top rates as high as they
were under Clinton and to cut some $400 billion from projected increases
in Medicare and other entitlement spending, the White House has ceded
important ground.
Republicans obviously want much, much more.
The administration has taken a “step backward, moving away from
consensus and significantly closer to the cliff, delaying again the real,
balanced solution that this crisis requires,” said Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) in a written statement. “No substantive
progress has been made” added House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio).