House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) sought to shift responsibility Friday to President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate to reach an agreement to avert a series of spending cuts and tax hikes after his fellow Republicans delivered a stunning rebuke to Boehner’s own plan to raise taxes on those making more than $1 million.
In a Friday morning news conference about 14 hours after he abruptly canceled a vote on his proposal, known as “Plan B,” Boehner vowed to continue negotiating with the White House to avert the “fiscal cliff.” He said his plan failed because many of his fellow Republicans simply did not want to be perceived to be raising any taxes.
Latest 'fiscal cliff' headlines
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More fiscal cliff coverage
Paul Kane, Ed O’Keefe and Lori Montgomery
House Speaker John Boehner has had two possible deals to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’ fall apart in the past week.
Dylan Matthews
Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out a path forward using this calculator.
Start here for an explanation of wonky terms and key issues in the looming fiscal crisis.
Boehner said he continues to favor a grand bargain with the president that would set the stage for a dramatic overhaul of the tax code and significant changes in federal entitlement programs.
“How we get there, God only knows,” he said.
But Boehner noted that the House has already passed a bill embodying the Republican position that all Americans should be spared a tax increase in January. He said it was now the Senate’s turn to act.
“I don’t want taxes to go up; Republicans don’t want taxes to go up,” Boehner said. “But we only run the House. Democrats continue to run Washington.”
Asked what went wrong with Plan B, Boehner said: “We had a number of our members who just really didn’t want to be perceived as having raised taxes. That was the real issue.”
The speaker stood before the microphones Friday with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), a sign that the House GOP leadership team remains intact and united behind reaching a deal.
Pressed on whether he should be concerned about his losing his leadership of the House, Boehner flatly insisted: “No, I am not.”
“I have told my colleagues this: if you do the right things every day for the right reasons, the right things will happen,” Boehner said. “And while we may have not been able to get the votes last night to avert 99.81 percent of the tax increases, I don’t think — they weren’t taking that out on me. They were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes.”
Boehner also made clear that they will call back their colleagues with 48 hours notice if a deal is imminent.
“We’re prepared to come back if needed,” he said.
Boehner and Cantor spoke about a half hour after Wall Street began its trading day, with stocks opening sharply lower. At the open, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 140 points, a 1 percent decline. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market also fell.
By noon Eastern time, the Dow Jones was down 1.24 percent, the S&P 500 was off 1.38 percent, and the Nasdaq had dropped 1.40 percent.
Many investors have been expecting a timely resolution of the fiscal cliff, and markets could be highly volatile as the Jan. 1 deadline approaches. Foreign markets also declined overnight, with European shares down about 0.75 percent and Japanese stocks falling 1 percent.
The House’s inability to act left efforts to avoid the fiscal cliff in shambles just as senior lawmakers were either heading home for the holidays or getting on planes to Hawaii for the Sunday burial of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), who died Monday. On Friday morning, with Inouye’s memorial service underway at the National Cathedral, the halls of the Capitol were largely deserted.
In a Friday morning news conference about 14 hours after he abruptly canceled a vote on his proposal, known as “Plan B,” Boehner vowed to continue negotiating with the White House to avert the “fiscal cliff.” He said his plan failed because many of his fellow Republicans simply did not want to be perceived to be raising any taxes.
Latest 'fiscal cliff' headlines
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More fiscal cliff coverage
Paul Kane, Ed O’Keefe and Lori Montgomery House Speaker John Boehner has had two possible deals to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’ fall apart in the past week.
Dylan Matthews Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to figure out a path forward using this calculator.
Start here for an explanation of wonky terms and key issues in the looming fiscal crisis.Boehner said he continues to favor a grand bargain with the president that would set the stage for a dramatic overhaul of the tax code and significant changes in federal entitlement programs.
“How we get there, God only knows,” he said.
But Boehner noted that the House has already passed a bill embodying the Republican position that all Americans should be spared a tax increase in January. He said it was now the Senate’s turn to act.
“I don’t want taxes to go up; Republicans don’t want taxes to go up,” Boehner said. “But we only run the House. Democrats continue to run Washington.”
Asked what went wrong with Plan B, Boehner said: “We had a number of our members who just really didn’t want to be perceived as having raised taxes. That was the real issue.”
The speaker stood before the microphones Friday with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), a sign that the House GOP leadership team remains intact and united behind reaching a deal.
Pressed on whether he should be concerned about his losing his leadership of the House, Boehner flatly insisted: “No, I am not.”
“I have told my colleagues this: if you do the right things every day for the right reasons, the right things will happen,” Boehner said. “And while we may have not been able to get the votes last night to avert 99.81 percent of the tax increases, I don’t think — they weren’t taking that out on me. They were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes.”
Boehner also made clear that they will call back their colleagues with 48 hours notice if a deal is imminent.
“We’re prepared to come back if needed,” he said.
Boehner and Cantor spoke about a half hour after Wall Street began its trading day, with stocks opening sharply lower. At the open, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 140 points, a 1 percent decline. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market also fell.
By noon Eastern time, the Dow Jones was down 1.24 percent, the S&P 500 was off 1.38 percent, and the Nasdaq had dropped 1.40 percent.
Many investors have been expecting a timely resolution of the fiscal cliff, and markets could be highly volatile as the Jan. 1 deadline approaches. Foreign markets also declined overnight, with European shares down about 0.75 percent and Japanese stocks falling 1 percent.
The House’s inability to act left efforts to avoid the fiscal cliff in shambles just as senior lawmakers were either heading home for the holidays or getting on planes to Hawaii for the Sunday burial of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), who died Monday. On Friday morning, with Inouye’s memorial service underway at the National Cathedral, the halls of the Capitol were largely deserted.