WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met Sunday at the White House to discuss the ongoing
negotiations over the impending "fiscal cliff," the first meeting between just the two leaders since Election Day.
Spokesmen for both Obama and Boehner said they agreed to not release details of the conversation, but emphasized that the
lines of communication remain open.
The meeting comes as the White House and Congress try to break an impasse over finding a way to stop a combination of automatic
tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to kick in at the beginning of next year.
Obama met in November with Boehner, as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The
president spoke by telephone with Reid and in person with Pelosi on Friday.
Obama has been pushing higher tax rates on
the wealthiest Americans as one way to reduce the deficit — a position
Boehner
and other House Republicans have been steadfastly against.
Republicans are demanding steeper cuts in costly government entitlement
programs like Medicare and Social Security.
One GOP senator said Sunday that Senate Republicans would probably agree to higher tax rates on the wealthiest Americans if
it meant getting a chance to overhaul entitlement programs.
The comments by Bob Corker of Tennessee — a fiscal conservative who has been gaining stature in the Senate as a pragmatic
deal broker — puts new pressure on Boehner and other Republican leaders to rethink their long-held assertion that even the
very rich shouldn't see their rates go up next year. GOP leaders have argued that the revenue gained by hiking the top two
tax rates would be trivial to the deficit, and that any tax hike hurts job creation.
But Corker said insisting on that red line — especially since Obama won re-election after campaigning on raising tax rates
on the wealthy — might not be wise.
"There is a growing group of folks looking at this and realizing that we don't have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax
issue before year end," Corker told "Fox News Sunday."
If Republicans agree to Obama's plan to increase rates on the top 2 percent of Americans, Corker added, "the focus then shifts
to entitlements and maybe it puts us in a place where we actually can do something that really saves the nation."
Besides getting tax hikes through the
Republican-dominated House, Corker's proposal faces another hurdle:
Democrats haven't
been receptive to GOP proposals on the entitlement programs.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Sunday was skeptical
about proposals to increase the eligibility age for Medicare from
65 to 67. He said he doesn't see Congress addressing the
complicated issue of Medicare overhaul in the three weeks
remaining before the end of the year.
"I just don't think we can do it in a matter of days here before the end of the year," Durbin said. "We need to address that
in a thoughtful way through the committee structure after the first of the year."
And hard-line fiscal conservatives in the House are holding fast to their position.
"No Republican wants to vote for a rate tax increase," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Republican
Conference.
Added Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.: "I'm
not sure there is support for the rate hikes. There is support for
revenue by cleaning
up the code."
Still, at least one House Republican has said there is another way. Rep. Tom Cole, of Oklahoma, has said Obama and Boehner
should agree not to raise tax rates on the majority of Americans and negotiate the rates for top earners later. Cole said
Sunday that most House Republicans would vote for that approach because it doesn't include a rate hike.
"You know, it's not waving a white flag to recognize political reality," Cole said.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., already has said he could support higher tax rates on upper incomes as part of a comprehensive plan
to cut the federal deficit.
When asked Sunday what it would take to sign
on to a tax rate increase, Coburn echoed Corker's comments by
responding, "Significant
entitlement reform." He quickly added, however, that he has
estimated that such a tax rate increase would only affect about
7 percent of the deficit.
"Will I accept a tax increase as a part of a
deal to actually solve our problems? Yes," Coburn said. "But the
president's
negotiating with the wrong people. He needs to be negotiating with
our bondholders in China, because if we don't put a credible
plan on the discussion, ultimately, we all lose."
Obama's plan would raise $1.6 trillion in
revenue over 10 years, partly by letting decade-old tax cuts on the
country's highest
earners expire at the end of the year. He would continue those
Bush-era tax cuts for everyone except individuals earning more
than $200,000 and couples making above $250,000. The highest rates
on top-paid Americans would rise from 33 percent and 35
percent to 36 percent and 39.6 percent.
Boehner has offered $800 billion in new revenues to be raised by reducing or eliminating unspecified tax breaks on upper-income
people. The Republican plan would cut spending by $1.4 trillion, including by trimming annual increases in Social Security
payments and raising the eligibility age for Medicare.
Hensarling and Coburn spoke on ABC's "This Week." Blackburn and Cole spoke on CNN's "State of the Union." Durbin spoke on
NBC's "Meet the Press."