Breaking: House Majority Leader Cantor Says Expects to Have Repub. Votes to Pass Fiscal Cliff Bill

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

@Reuters: FLASH: U.S. House majority leader Cantor says he expects to have Republican votes to pass fiscal cliff bill

Will update with link.

Read more: Link to source

[msongs]

1. is this obama's cue to give it all away now? nt

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

6. What does that mean?

Are you saying the President is not going to protect SS and let the top 1% off the hook? Even if Cantor has votes to pass a bill, it's got to go to the Senate and then the President right? So he can veto it if it stinks. Which I think he'd do.
I honestly don't get the hand wringing and moaning about leaked reports and speculation and press releases regarding the talks. We don't know what is going on and won't until someone stands in front of a camera and tells us.........

[Kelvin Mace]

10. Obama has already made noises

that he is willing to cut benefits.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/18/1171595/-Why-is-Obama-trying-to-bail-out-the-nbsp-GOP

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

34. That's not noise

that's just a blog which is an opinion.

[Kelvin Mace]

36. Quoting folks who are

involved in the talks.

When a politician stops outright denying a specific action will be taken, then starts using qualifying or conditional language, you are about to be sold out.

[Liberalynn]

13. if the AP story is true

he already has

[MjolnirTime]

19. Why do you enjoy trashing the President so much? You've been at it forever.

Don't you have something more productive to do? Maybe not.

[loyalkydem]

2. Not if we all call the WH line and tell him to hold his ground.

[WilliamPitt]

3. Which one? The one we've been hearing about, or Boehner's "Plan B"?

[Liberalynn]

12. I think it is the one we have been hearing about

he bascially gave them everything they wanted with very little in return. JMHO take on this. Not certain.

[democrattotheend]

15. Not quite

If he means the president's latest offer is what Boehner has the votes to pass, the president gets:
- Tax hikes on most of the population he wanted, and more revenue than I expected him to get ($1.2 trillion)
- Unemployment insurance extension
- $50 billion in new Infrastructure spending
- No raise in Medicare age
- Tax cuts for the 98%
- Raise in capital gains tax rate
- Raise in estate tax
- Dividend taxes revert to pre-Bush levels (that tax cut was a bigger abomination than 2001)
- Held the line on the top rates going all the way back up instead of compromising at 37%
- Averting another slide into recession

Boehner gets:
- Chained CPI (yes, this is a big concession, I am not minimizing that)
- Raising the floor for the tax hikes from $250,000 to $400,000
- No extension of the payroll tax holiday

How is that giving the Republicans almost everything they wanted?

[sulphurdunn]

18. Social Security

is irrelevant to a discussion of deficit reduction. The Chained CPI is a deal breaker, and I will never forgive Obama or the Democratic party if they sellout the elderly to make a deal with a gerrymandered minority House they should be about crushing rather than negotiating with.

[Liberalynn]

24. I know what gets me is Obama himself said right after the election it has nothing to do

with the deficit, so why give in to the PUKES on this?

[Liberalynn]

21. Given I overstated in saying he is giving the Republicans almost everything they want

so I will apologize for that. It was said out of anger.

But Chained CPI is a huge sell out, and I won't call that anything less.

I will say I am glad the Payroll tax deduction will be over if this bill is passed because I thought it was a horrible originally Republican idea to begin with. I have never changed on that but that does not dilute my anger over the whole chained CPI sellout.
.

[democrattotheend]

30. I agree, the CPI is a sellout

And I knew he would have to give something on entitlements but I wish he didn't do it like this. If he had to give on SS I'd rather have means testing.

I have mixed feelings on the payroll tax. I know people who are going to be hurt by it going up, but I see the argument for raising it because we want to keep SS solvent. I think my attitude is partially age-based: I am young enough that I don't expect to see a dime from SS, so I would rather have the bigger paycheck. I wish they would keep the lower payroll tax rate but raise the cap to compensate.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

22. Sounds good to me. Let the whiners wine and let's put this behind us... nt

[nineteen50]

26. Chained CPI (yes, this is a big concession, I am not minimizing that)

the first big cut in many to come so wall street can take over taxpayers money.

[democrattotheend]

31. Less likely if deal puts away debt ceiling

for at least 2 years. Then the GOP has no leverage to get more cuts. And if the economy recovers the deficit will shrink, and then they will have no justification for it. If they fail to reach a deal now the economy will get worse, the deficit will get worse, and the GOP will have more leverage and more justification for more cuts.

The devil is in the details regarding CPI. In 2011, Jack Lew told the president it could be formulated in such a way that actually raises benefits a little for the poorest SS recipients. Let's hope the final deal ends up like that.

[bloomington-lib]

4. I can't imagine them having enough votes for anything good

[The Wizard]

5. Cantor lies without compunction

He left out the part where the President agrees to cut benefits in half and increases the tax on the wealthy elites by half a point. Go off the cliff and make the Repubes pay. Propose a tax cut for the middle class and let the swine on the right refuse it. They may have the majority, but they also know a majority of voters supported Democrats and their majority is a result of the gerrymandering chicanery.
The got their asses kicked in the election and now they have to get their asses whipped in the public square.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Both sides want to go home for the holidays

so they'll vote for anything that puts an end to it

and gets them out of town.

[Fearless]

8. He says this because then if Dems veto it, as we should, we look bad.

[srichardson]

25. I agree.

Seems like something the repukes would do. Hopefully it will backfire.

[Kelvin Mace]

9. He gave away Social Security and/or Medicare cuts

If Obama got a deal so quick after floating the cuts, he sold us out.

[Liberalynn]

11. Agreed

[Owl]

14. To heck with passing the fiscal cliff. We are better off going over it.

[Andy Stanton]

16. If Cantor's for it

It ain't worth sh*t.

[Liberalynn]

23. Agreed

[Rosa Luxemburg]

17. I can't stand the fact we still have to deal with these Repub creatures

I wish we would have wiped them out in the last election.

[Warpy]

20. Well, of course he does

His party is one big rubber stamp for bad fiscal policy.

What he doesn't have are the Senate and the veto. That's what we have to hope will do the job of telling these crazies they can't always get what they want.

[fascisthunter]

27. well, what do ya know!

and what exactly did they agree on? Cutting SS so that in years to come, it will become more publicly acceptable? "Hey, they had to do it last time, why not again?"

[The Second Stone]

28. The fiscal cliff is preferrable to cuts to social security benefits

so let's call our Congress members and let them know.

[melissaf]

29. Link?

This article from Reuters says Cantor expects to vote on the GOP fiscal cliff bill, which raises taxes on those earning $1 million+.

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/19/us-usa-fiscal-cantor-idUSBRE8BI00620121219|

[Liberalynn]

33. Thank you for clearing that up

breathing a little easier now, that the vote will be on their bill only. We know DEMs have already said no to that one. Actually glad the PUKES are rejecting the proposal. The longer they draw it out, the more chance we have of getting action delayed until we increase our margins in the Senate and House. We will get more time to lobby legislators against cuts to SS in the form of chained CPI.

[creeksneakers2]

35. I'm eager to find out

what specific cuts will be included.

[onehandle]

32. Cantor and Boehner in a cage match to the death. nt