Debt-reduction negotiations between President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner collapsed Friday, derailing an effort to reach a landmark agreement to cut spending, overhaul the tax code and avert a government default.Read the rest here.
In subsequent statements, both sides blamed the other for an impasse that threatens to plunge the nation into a fiscal crisis if the government fails to meet a looming deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling.
“It’s hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal,” Obama said, but Boehner (R-Ohio) countered that it was the president who walked away from an agreement on revenue increases.
“The White House moved the goal posts,” Boehner said in a press conference, demanding “more money at the last minute — and the only way to get that extra revenue was to raise taxes.”
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1 comment:
I was not in the room, so for all I know the White House really was moving the goal posts on tax increases at the last minute. On the other hand, I am given to understand that at the last minute Rep. Boehner and his team demanded a repeal of the Health Reform's individual mandate, which rather sounds like a case of moving the goal posts to my ear. Perhaps both sides could simply abandon those last demands and return where they left off. This is rather too serious a matter to start throwing poison pills into the negotiations.
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