GOP leaders demand Senate act first on fiscal cliff
Source: Washington Post
House Republican leaders said Wednesday that the ball was in the Senate’s court to avert the fiscal cliff, demanding that the upper chamber take up earlier House-approved bills in a legislative “ping-pong” until the two chambers reach a deal to avert austerity measures set to take effect next week.
In a joint statement, the four leaders said the Senate should at least amend the conservative drafts that the House approved last fall — one to extend expiring tax cuts for all income levels, the other to shut off automatic spending cuts on national security agencies — and send them back to the House over the weekend.
With just days left before the Jan. 1 deadline, when the federal government faces a series of tax increases and deep spending cuts, House Speaker John A. Boehner’s leadership team has decided that bouncing bills back and forth between the chambers would be the fastest way to reach a compromise.
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Senate Democrats have resisted any attempt to pin the outcome of the budget negotiations entirely on their chamber’s next step, suggesting that Boehner has to be a party to some compromise.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/12/26/gop-leaders-demand-that-senate-take-up-house-fiscal-cliff-bills/
This story is an example of the corporate media's continued portrayal of a false equivalency. When Harry Reid suggested that Romney paid close to zero in taxes, the corporate media aggressively attacked him and demanded that he substantiate his claims. However, when the GOP simply asserts that Democrats are responsible for trying to fix the mess that they created by virtue of their intransience, as well as their pursuit of a flawed Plan B, the corporate media does not hold Republicans accountable.
I recall a DUer complaining about President Obama's call to action and his request that the American people hold their representatives accountable. Well, this type of coverage underscores the need to put pressure on Congress and hold Republicans accountable for this type of B.S.
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