President Barack Obama discusses the negotiations with Capitol Hill on the looming fiscal cliff in front of middle??Vice President Joe Biden was headed to Capitol Hill Monday night to brief Democratic senators on a compromise agreement to avert the automatic across the board tax hikes triggered by the midnight "fiscal cliff" deadline.
"The White House and Republicans have a deal," a Democratic Senate aide told Yahoo News. The Senate is likely to vote on the agreement Monday night, New Year's Eve; the House is scheduled to return at noon on Tuesday to consider the deal.
Under the compromise arrangement, taxes would rise on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households, while exemptions and deductions the wealthiest Americans use to reduce their tax bill would face new limits. The accord would also raise the taxes paid on large inheritances from 35% to 40% for estates over $5 million. And it would extend by one year unemployment benefits for some two million Americans.
Biden, a 34-year Senate veteran, worked out the agreement with Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader. Days ago, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner said any agreement to dodge the fiscal cliff would have to be crafted in the Senate.
But with time running short, the country appeared on track to go over the cliff, or midnight deadline, possibly just for a matter of hours, and with no major damage resulting from the delay.
?Today, it appears that an agreement to prevent this New Year's tax hike is within sight, but it's not done,? Obama said in hastily announced midday remarks at the White House. ?There are still issues left to resolve, but we're hopeful that Congress can get it done ? but it?s not done.?
"One thing we can count on with respect to this Congress is that if there is even one second left before you have to do what you?re supposed to do, they will use that last second," he said.
Obama?s remarks ? by turns scolding, triumphant, and mocking of Congress ? came after talks between McConnell and Biden appeared to seal the breakthrough deal.
Efforts to modify the first installment of $1.2 trillion in cuts to domestic and defense programs over 10 years -- the other portion of the ?fiscal cliff? known as sequestration -- had yet to bear fruit. Experts had warned that the tax increase and spending cuts, taken together, could plunge the still-fragile economy into a new recession.
?I can report that we?ve reached an agreement on all of the tax issues,? McConnell said on the Senate floor. ?We are very, very close to an agreement.?
The Kentucky Republican later briefed Republicans on the contents of the deal. Lawmakers emerged from that closed-door session offered hopeful appraisals that, after clearing a few last-minute hurdles, they could vote on New Year?s Eve or with 2013 just hours old.
?Tonight, I hope,? Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee told reporters. ?It may be at 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning. Oh, I guess that?s technically tomorrow.?
Republican Senators said negotiators were still working on a way to forestall two months of the ?sequester? spending cuts, about $20 billion worth. And some expressed disquiet that the tentative compromise ran high on tax increases and low on spending cuts -- while warning that failure to act, triggering some $600 billion in income tax increases on all Americans who pay it and draconian spending cuts, was the worse option.
McConnell earlier had called for a vote on the tax component of the deal.
?Let me be clear: We?ll continue to work on finding smarter ways to cut spending, but let?s not let that hold up protecting Americans from the tax hike,? McConnell urged. ?Let?s pass the tax relief portion now. Let?s take what?s been agreed to and get moving.?
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., followed by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., second from right, leaves??
Any final compromise would need to clear the Democratic-led Senate and Republican-held House. Aides in both chambers doubted that could happen ? but emphasized that there was no need to move the family into the Doomsday bunker in the back yard. Yet.
Unlike a college student who writes an end-of-semester paper overnight before a morning deadline, then drops the assignment off hours after it was due, Congress can write its own rules to minimize the damage ? and Americans whose taxes are staying the same won?t see a change in their bottom line.
?It?s basically a matter of saying it?s effective January 1,? one senior Republican aide shrugged.
McConnell announced Sunday that he had started to negotiate with Biden in a bid to "jump-start" stalled talks to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Under their tentative deal, the top tax rate on household income above $450,000 would rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent -- where it was under Bill Clinton, before the reductions enacted under George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.
Some congressional liberals had expressed objections to extending tax cuts above the $250,000 income threshold Obama cited throughout the 2012 campaign. Democrats were huddling in private as well to work out whether they could support the arrangement.
Possibly with balking progressives in mind, Obama trumpeted victories dear to the left of his party. "The potential agreement that?s being talked about would not only make sure the taxes don?t go up on middle-class families, it also would extend tax credits for families with children. It would extend our tuition tax credit that?s helped millions of families pay for college. It would extend tax credits for clean energy companies that are creating jobs and reducing our dependence on foreign oil. It would extend unemployment insurance to 2 million Americans who are out there still actively looking for a job."
Obama said he had hoped for "a larger agreement, a bigger deal, a grand bargain," to stem the tide of red ink swamping the country?s finances ? but shelved that goal.
"With this Congress, that was obviously a little too much to hope for at this time," he said. "It may be we can do it in stages. We?re going to solve this problem instead in several steps."
The president also looked ahead to his next budgetary battle with Republicans, warning that ?any future deficit agreement? will have to couple spending cuts with tax increases. He expressed a willingness to reduce spending on popular programs like Medicare, but said entitlement reform would have to go hand in hand with new tax revenues.
?If Republicans think that I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone ? then they?ve another thing coming,? Obama said defiantly. ?That?s not how it?s going to work.?
?If we?re serious about deficit reduction and debt reduction, then it?s going to have to be a matter of shared sacrifice. At least as long as I?m president. And I?m going to be president for the next four years, I hope,? he said.
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