House GOP leaders are scrambling to rally their members for a vote expected by early evening on a plan to extend tax cuts on income up to $1 million, defying President Obama’s veto threat and setting up a showdown that could send Washington over the year-end “fiscal cliff.”
Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) paced the House aisles on Wednesday as he shook hands, patted shoulders and buttonholed his fellow Republicans in search of support for his plan. The proposal would extend tax rates for the overwhelming majority of workers while deferring action on other austerity measures, such as automatic cuts in domestic and military spending, slated to hit next month.
The House vote on the plan poses a major political test for Boehner’s leadership team, which is pitching it as a vote of confidence and a way for Republicans to extract more concessions from Obama in negotiations over government spending and taxes.
After progress over the weekend toward agreement on a broad package of measures to address the federal deficit, Obama on Wednesday blasted Boehner’s decision to temporarily halt negotiations and instead push the alternative plan.
“Take the deal,” Obama said at a midday news conference, suggesting that the main obstacle to an agreement is GOP antipathy for the president himself. “They keep finding ways to say ‘no’ rather than to say ‘yes.’
Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) paced the House aisles on Wednesday as he shook hands, patted shoulders and buttonholed his fellow Republicans in search of support for his plan. The proposal would extend tax rates for the overwhelming majority of workers while deferring action on other austerity measures, such as automatic cuts in domestic and military spending, slated to hit next month.
The House vote on the plan poses a major political test for Boehner’s leadership team, which is pitching it as a vote of confidence and a way for Republicans to extract more concessions from Obama in negotiations over government spending and taxes.
After progress over the weekend toward agreement on a broad package of measures to address the federal deficit, Obama on Wednesday blasted Boehner’s decision to temporarily halt negotiations and instead push the alternative plan.
“Take the deal,” Obama said at a midday news conference, suggesting that the main obstacle to an agreement is GOP antipathy for the president himself. “They keep finding ways to say ‘no’ rather than to say ‘yes.’