As January 1st 2013 approaches, with its automatic tax-hikes and draconian budget cuts looming ever more real, negotiations to find an equitable solution are getting more heated and volatile. With the delay in progress has come the threat from the Republican leadership to take measures into their own hands and bring its own bill to the floor of the House of Representatives.
Yet even among Republicans this bill, known as “Plan B,” evokes internal disharmony as hardline Republicans do not agree with the tax hikes for the group of earners making $1 million or more which is included in the Republican proposal, a necessary compromise to avoid a veto from President Obama.
Obama did not understand what was delaying the talks which will hopefully reach a reasonable compromise between Obama’s position and the Republican viewpoint on how to avoid the coming “fiscal cliff.” The President told Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House and the chief negotiator for the Republican side, that he should stop worrying about scoring “a point against the president” or having him make concessions, “just for the heck of it.”
“It is very hard for them to say yes to me,” Obama said at a news conference in the White House. “At some point, you know, they’ve got to take me out of it.”