Alex Pappas
The Daily Caller
12/4/2012
Paul Ryan addressed the fiscal cliff crisis on Tuesday, telling a Milwaukee radio host: “We’re nowhere. We’re farther than where we started.”
In an interview with 620 WTMJ host Charlie Sykes, the Wisconsin congressman and 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee said the fiscal cliff negotiations to stop automatic tax hikes and spending cuts at the end of the year “don’t really exist” because the White House won’t negotiate with Republicans.
“He took 40 minutes to reject the deal,” Ryan said of Obama’s dismissal of a compromise offered by Republicans on the fiscal cliff on Monday.
“That leads us to conclude he’s trying to get us to our fiscal cliff,” Ryan said. “He doesn’t want to come to the middle.”
On Monday, Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, signed on to the Republican compromise plan offered to the White House.
The letter, authored by Speaker of the House John Boehner, says Republicans support “a balanced approach of significant spending cuts and new revenues from tax reform with fewer loopholes and lower tax rates” inspired by testimony from former Bill Clinton chief-of-staff Erskine Bowles in 2011.
Democrats said the Republican offer isn’t balanced enough and should include more tax revenue by raising taxes on the wealthy.
“The President’s not really negotiating,” Ryan said. “He’s just sort of moving the goal posts, rejecting offers.”…
…Asked if he’s over the post-election hangover, Ryan said: “Obviously it’s not fun to lose an election.”
“You’ve got to think and ponder these things,” he said. “And they tell me it was about 427,000 votes spread across four states that made the difference between winning and losing this election.”
The entire article is at The Daily Caller.
Related: Watcher’s Forum: The Fiscal Cliff – Let It Happen Or Grand Bargain?
Every week on Monday morning, the Council and invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum with short takes on a major issue of the day. This week’s question: The Fiscal Cliff: Let it happen or Grand Bargain?
For those of you whom may not be aware, ‘the Fiscal cliff’ refers to automatic and draconian spending cuts, the end of the Bush-era tax cuts and a general hike in taxes as many Americans who are now exempt from the Alternative Minimum Tax become subject to paying it. This was agreed to the last time by both parties as part of a deal to raise President Obama’s credit card limit (AKA the debt ceiling) last year. It goes into effect January 1st, 2013 if there’s no agreement between President Obama and the House Republicans on taxes, the debt limit and spending. The president wants to raise taxes on ‘the rich,’ another binge of stimulus spending, an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling and sole authority to raise the debt ceiling as he sees fit. The Republicans say they’re open to some tax increases, but want significant cuts in spending as part of any deal and are not willing to see another stimulus or give the president the authority he wants to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally….
Socialists Outline Democrat’s Agenda for Next Two Years
Contrary to popular opinion, the US Democratic Party does not set much of its own policy.
Democrat policy is actually dictated by the labor unions and radical think tanks, such as the Center for American Progress, and the Institute for Policy Studies.
The unions are dominated by the US’s largest Marxist organization Democratic Socialists of America – which also works closely with the C.A.P. and I.P.S.
So, by a process of osmosis and deliberate orchestration, D.S.A., and their friends in the Communist Party USA, effectively dictate Democrat policy at state and national levels…
Read the whole thing.
Update: From American Power Blog:
