–Rep. Boehner: Obama Must Submit A ‘Credible Plan’ In Response To GOP
–Sen. McConnell: Obama’s Budget Proposal Was ‘So Ridiculous’
–Senate Majority Leader Says McConnell Is Trying To ‘Torpedo’ Talks

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell Wednesday stepped up criticisms of President
Obama’s fiscal cliff offer, blasting the plan as a transparent political
ploy.

Boehner, who took a number of swipes at Obama during a morning
press conference, issued a statement in the afternoon calling on the
president to offer a “credible plan of his own that can pass both houses
of Congress.”

Boehner said Obama has recently rejected spending cuts that he once
supported and “refuses to identify serious spending cuts.”

“With the American economy on the brink of the fiscal cliff, we
don’t have time for the president to continue shifting the goal posts,”
Boehner said.

McConnell took to the Senate floor Thursday afternoon and ripped
into Obama’s fiscal plan as “so ridiculous” it could not pass the House,
even if Nancy Pelosi were still Speaker.

McConnell called the package the “Geithner proposal,” since it was
outlined last week by the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

He called the administration’s assertion that the debt ceiling
provisions in the package were ones that McConnell offered last year as
“dishonest” and “juvenile.”

McConnell said he offered the complex debt ceiling process in 2011
in the context of a $2 trillion spending cut plan.

McConnell made a motion for the Senate to take up the Geithner
proposal as an amendment to a bill granting Russia permanent normal
trade relations.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid objected and called McConnell’s
motion a “political stunt.”

“There is no Geithner proposal. This is made up,” Reid said,
ridiculing McConnell for brandishing a huge stack of papers which he
claimed was the Treasury Secretary’s plan.

Reid said Geithner came to the Capitol last week to discuss a
simple proposal that was on a few pieces of paper.

Reid said McConnell is trying to “torpedo” fiscal talks and accused
the GOP of creating a false, increasingly bizarre “Wizard of Oz” world
in Washington.

Last week, Obama offered a proposal that calls for $1.6 trillion in
additional revenues, $600 billion in entitlement savings and $50 billion
for new infrastructure spending.

The administration plan also calls for the extension of Bush era
tax cuts for those families making less than $250,000 a year, the
extension of the two percentage point payroll tax reduction that was
first approved in 2010, a renewal of unemployment insurance benefits,
and a housing refinance provision to help homeowners who are underwater
in their mortgages.

The administration is recommending a revised procedure for the debt
ceiling in which Congress no longer would have to affirmatively approve
a debt hike. Instead, Congress would be able to block debt ceiling
increases by passing motions of disapproval, but these would take
two-thirds majorities in both chambers.

On Monday, House Republicans countered with a plan that calls for
$1.4 trillion in spending cuts and $800 billion in additional revenues
through tax reform.

The spending savings include $600 billion from health care
entitlements, $300 billion from other entitlements, $200 billion by
using the chained CPI for indexing benefit programs and $300 billion in
additional discretionary savings.

Boehner said he remains convinced that it’s possible to raise $800
billion in revenue by closing loopholes and limiting deductions, adding
that the bulk of these revenues would come from upper income people.

** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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