WASHINGTON — While he won’t be the lead negotiator, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will occupy a key position in what will likely be marathon talks between Republicans and the White House on avoiding what some are calling the nation’s “fiscal cliff.”
McConnell, R-Ky., is expected to be the “wing man” to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, as he tries to craft an agreement with President Barack Obama to avoid automatic year-end tax increases and spending cuts, according to outgoing Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who has served as Senate minority whip.
Without a deal the Bush-era tax cuts will expire Dec. 31, which would increase taxes on every American who gets a paycheck. At the same time, billions of dollars in spending cuts in domestic and defense programs would be triggered. If a deal isn’t reached, some economists and business leaders fear it could plunge the nation back into a recession.
McConnell, Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., met with Obama at the White House last week for an initial conversation about possible paths toward a solution.
“We’re prepared to put revenue on the table provided we fix the real problem,” which is the rising cost of entitlement programs, McConnell told reporters after the meeting.
The definition of “revenue” is critical to the talks’ success.
GOP leaders remain adamant that taxes not be increased, even on Americans making $250,000 or more. Instead, McConnell and other Republicans believe revenue can be boosted by changing deductions and other tax provisions.
Obama and many Democrats, however, have expressed doubt that that method alone will raise enough money to dent the deficit.
Even so, Reid expressed optimism. “We have the cornerstones of being able to work something out,” he said.
House Republicans have a 241-193 advantage over Democrats (the majority will be smaller when the new Congress begins in January), but they have been reluctant in past budget negotiations to go along with proposals that include tax increases.
Obama and the Democrats are pushing to allow the tax rate to go up for wealthy Americans as part of a package that would include changes in eligibility and benefits for Social Security and Medicare.
At least part of Boehner’s caucus will have to go along with the Democrats to push any deal through the House.
“It’s pretty clear Speaker Boehner is going to lose some people,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based group that tracks government spending. “… But if he can have enough Republicans, and assume the president will have enough Democrats, it will move through the House.”
In the Senate, Democrats are in control, with a current 51-47 margin, plus two independents who caucus with the Democrats. On a party-line vote of 51-48, the Senate on July 25 passed a bill to extend the tax cuts through 2013 for all but the wealthiest Americans.
Obama and Democrats such as U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky’s 3rd District contend that just extending those tax cuts would constitute significant steps back from the fiscal cliff.
Yarmuth, a member of the House Budget Committee, said the Senate bill could be voted on in the House right now.
“If Speaker Boehner could supply 25 to 30 (Republican) votes, we’d supply the rest of them,” the Louisville Democrat said earlier this week on MSNBC. But he said he has not seen signs of GOP flexibility. “Where have they ever taken one step toward us? They’ve never been willing to move out of their end zone,” Yarmuth said of the Republicans.
In the Senate, the trick for Democrats is to avoid getting a fiscal cliff deal mired in a filibuster, which would take 60 votes — and thus GOP help — to break.
For that reason, McConnell pointedly noted, “it’s not irrelevant what Senate Republicans think.”
Ellis agreed McConnell still has a key role in the talks. “It helps him in later stages (of negotiations) to jump in and perhaps advance the ball in a different way,” Ellis said.
While McConnell has taken the hard-line position of no tax increases now, he has a record of helping to forge bipartisan agreements. The Kentucky lawmaker did so in 2010 on extending tax cuts for two years, and in 2011 on increasing the debt ceiling with offsetting spending cuts.
In both instances, McConnell worked quietly with Vice President Joe Biden, a former Senate colleague who was known in the administration as the “McConnell whisperer,” according to Bob Woodward’s new book, “The Price of Politics.”
Written By: James R. Carroll
Original Publication URL: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20121123/NEWS010605/311230079/In-budget-talks-Sen-Mitch-McConnell-has-role-not-lead-position?nclick_check=1
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