–DRIVING THE DECADE: At 6 p.m., “the President and the Vice President will meet with Congressional Leadership in the Cabinet Room to discuss the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction. There will be a pool spray at the top of the meeting. Expected attendees include: Speaker John Boehner; Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader; Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican Leader; Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leader; Representative Eric Cantor, Majority Leader; Senator Dick Durbin, Majority Whip; Senator Jon Kyl, Republican Whip; Representative Steny Hoyer, Democratic Whip.”
–Boehner statement, 8:21 p.m.: “Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase.”
–White House statement from Dan Pfeiffer, 9:14 p.m.: “The President believes that solving our fiscal problems is an economic imperative. But in order to do that, we cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts. … Both parties have made real progress thus far, and to back off now will not only fail to solve our fiscal challenge, it will confirm the cynicism people have about politics in Washington. The President believes that now is the moment to rise above that cynicism and show the American people that we can still do big things. And so tomorrow, he will make the case to congressional leaders that we must reject the politics of least resistance and take on this critical challenge.”
–Additional background from the Speaker’s office: “All year long the Speaker has pressed the president to ‘go big’ and do something dramatic to reduce the deficit. Over the last week, the Speaker saw a potential opportunity for a landmark agreement between the president and Congressional Republicans that included reforms to all three major entitlement spending programs, strict caps on future spending, and comprehensive tax reform with a broader base and lower rates … [T]he president indicated that in order to do entitlement reform, he would have to have additional revenues. The Speaker countered by saying that Republicans would only discuss new revenues if they came from economic growth and tax reform instead of tax increases. The Speaker also insisted on a ‘trigger’ that mandated deep spending cuts and other consequences if the tax reforms were not implemented before the end of 2011.”
Read more at Politico.
Latest news is that Boehner has pulled another boner. He’s pulled out again, even Catholics know that doesn’t work. Seems he places his monumental ego above the good of the Republic. Wow, is he on the wrong road. He take his ball and go home only so many times.