Politics
Republicans: Deal can be done with Obama to avoid U.S. ‘fiscal cliff’
Limiting some deductions while closing loopholes is the middle ground proposed in 2010 by a commission created by the president and led by Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham urged Obama to sign on to its recommendations while pledging to do the same.
“Say ‘yes’ to Simpson-Bowles, Mr. President. I’m willing to say ‘yes’ to Simpson-Bowles. We need more revenue in Washington. We need more private sector jobs. We don’t need to raise tax rates,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Graham also warned that no Republican will vote for higher tax rates, and that reform of entitlement programs – such as the Social Security retirement program, the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, and the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor – must also be tackled.
“We will generate revenue from eliminating deductions and loopholes. But we will insist our Democratic friends reform entitlements. … That is where the big money is at.”
Failure to convincingly tackle the fiscal cliff could unsettled financial markets and risk another downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, while imposing a heavy burden on a fragile recovery that could even tip the economy back into recession.
Democrat Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, voiced optimism that the country would avoid the fiscal cliff, and said Congress must agree on a measure that wins some time to work out a more detailed plan to overhaul the tax code and entitlement programs.
“You can’t settle every detail in these next few weeks. What you can do is agree on a framework agreement that sets out for the (congressional) committees of jurisdiction how much they need to save, how much money needs to be raised,” Conrad said on “Fox News Sunday.”
