December 18, 2012 08:14 PM UTC

Compromise Until It Hurts, And Still No Deal?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post updates on the latest fiscal cliff gamesmanship:

Negotiations between Boehner and President Obama have made significant progress in recent days, with Boehner agreeing to the idea of raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, and Obama saying he could accept tax increases for households earning $400,000 or more per year. That threshold is a concession from the president’s campaign pledge to raise rates on those earning at least $250,000, but it remains unacceptable to many Republicans…

Boehner said the plan that Obama offered him on Monday evening “cannot be considered balanced,” because it includes significantly more in new tax revenue than in proposed spending cuts. He told reporters he would consider a deal “balanced” if it include spending reductions that are equal to revenue increases.

White House spokesman Jay Carney rejected the Plan B approach. “It can’t pass the Senate and therefore will not protect middle class families, and does little to address our fiscal challenges with zero spending cuts,” Carney said in a statement. “The President is hopeful that both sides can work out remaining differences and reach a solution so we don’t miss the opportunity in front of us today.”

The latest compromise offer from the Obama administration of adopting a more restrictive rate of growth in federal benefits relative to the cost of living is upsetting to many Democrats, as is the proposal to raise the threshold of income above which the Bush tax cuts would expire to $400,000. However, the Obama administration appears to have rejected the idea of raising the eligibility age for Medicare, a line drawn by many liberal Democrats in these negotiations.

But as Politico reports, the substantial concessions Obama made, to the point of provoking quite a bit of grumbling from the left in his own party this morning, are still not enough:

Boehner is seeking big cuts to entitlement programs, but said they don’t have to take hold until 2013. Specifically, the Ohio Republican said an increase in the Medicare eligibility age could be implemented then, Boehner told reporters.

“There are a lot of issues on the table. That issue has been on the table, off the table, back on the table. It’s an issue for discussion. But I don’t believe it’s an issue that has to be dealt with by the end of the year. It is an issue, I think if Congress were to do entitlement reform next year and tax reform as we envision, if there is an agreement, that issue would certainly be open to debate in that context.”

…Obama and Boehner are still a considerable distance apart on taxes. Obama wants to increase tax rates on income over $400,000. Boehner wants the threshold to be set at $1 million; the House GOP proposal would keep the lower Bush-era rates in place for income brackets below that. In essence, Boehner is seeking $1 trillion in revenue and $1 trillion in cuts – but he doesn’t think the president is willing to get there.

The only thing we can add to this discussion is a new CBS poll out today showing only 17% of the public approves of how Republicans are handling the latest round of high-stakes fiscal negotiations. That poll says fully 69% support allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on income over $250,000–a threshold less generous to the rich than Obama’s latest offer–while a smaller majority opposes cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare to get to a deal.

Politically, the winning side to be on is, for lack of a better word, obvious. Obama has gone as far with this latest offer as can possibly be expected, to the point of legitimately aggrieving the left of his party by restricting the future growth of benefits. If Boehner and his unpopular House can’t accept this offer, all we can say is they are richly earning their miserable poll numbers.