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Speaker John Boehner has proposed allowing tax rates to rise for the wealthiest Americans if President Barack Obama agrees to major entitlement cuts, according to several sources close to the talks. It is the first time Boehner has offered any boost in marginal tax rates for any income group, and it would represent a major concession for the Ohio Republican. Boehner suggested hiking the Bush-era tax rates for top wage earners, including those with annual incomes of $1 million or more annually, beginning Jan. 1, two sources said.

BOEHNER ADOPTS PELOSI PLAN

The White House on Tuesday rejected House Speaker John Boehner’s call for a fall-back option to avert the looming fiscal crisis, in a move the speaker’s office said “defies common sense.” The feisty exchange came as both sides crept toward a possible middle ground in private talks. But underscoring the differences that remain, the White House resisted Boehner’s bid to craft a “Plan B” just in case those talks fail to yield a compromise before a Jan. 1 deadline—that’s when taxes are set to rise on everyone, followed by a wave of spending cuts. “Every income tax filer in America...

House Republicans, discouraged by the pace of negotiations with the White House, will move their own bill that would hike tax rates on income above $1 million, according to several sources familiar with the plan. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told President Barack Obama of his plan last night on a phone call, according to sources. Boehner will make the argument to House Republicans that tax rates will go up on everyone come Jan. 1. “The question for us is real simple: How do we stop as many of those rate hikes as possible?” Boehner plans to tell House Republicans. “For...

Speaker of the House John Boehner's "Plan B" to avert the fiscal cliff would cut taxes for incomes under $1 million — a higher threshold than the White House demands, but one that had a powerful backer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. In May, Pelosi sent Boehner a letter calling for the immediate passage of a middle class tax cuts up to that level, while President Barack Obama was on the campaign trail calling for taxes to rise on incomes over $250,000. The White House has since revised that target at $400,000 in ongoing negotiations with Boehner, but has shown...

“It’s important that we protect as many American taxpayers as we can,” Boehner told reporters. “Our Plan B would protect American taxpayers who make $1 million or less.” For Americans making more than $1 million, the tax rate on their income over that amount would rise from 35 percent, the current rate, to 39.6 percent. Boehner hopes to bring his “Plan B” legislation to the floor later this week, and plans to update members on the schedule Tuesday night. In the meantime, he said, Republicans should argue that they’re working hard to protect current tax rates. The Tuesday meeting began...

There's a lot of talk right now about an impending fiscal cliff. But we already went over a cliff economically in this country a long time ago. The current debate over tax hikes is an empty one built upon a false premise. The debate is whether raising tax rates will address our current crisis. The premise is that it is a lack of taxation that has led to the crisis. Both are hopelessly wrong. President Obama's proposed tax increases on the top 2% of earners would fund the federal government for about eight days. Even if we taxed Americans earning...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Have I got this right? I think I do, 'cause I usually have most things right. Sorry. I know that makes people nervous. Well, being confident in what you believe makes people nervous, particularly women. That's what I've been told. I'm trying to dial that back. I'm trying to sound more unsure of myself as a way of expanding the audience. A little bit less confident so as to be less threatening. Squishy. Well, yeah, funnier, squishier, less threatening, less confident, more indecisive, seems to be the stuff that gets rewarded today. Anyway, I think I do...

Pretty much says it all. Further announcements scheduled for later today.

Here’s the latest from Conor Sweeney, Ryan’s spokesman: “Chairman Ryan will continue to work to protect as many Americans as possible from tax hikes. Chairman Ryan believes that Speaker Boehner’s ‘Plan B’ meets that criteria.”

A very strong statement from Speaker Boehner: "Tomorrow the House will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every American -- 99.81% of the American people. Then the President will have a decision to make. He can call on the Senate Democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frustrated by their inability to wring more "fiscal cliff" concessions out of President Barack Obama, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives announced Tuesday night that they expect to pass their own tax bill as a backup plan to avert the tax hikes and automatic budget cuts set to occur in January. No one expects the bill, which would extend low tax rates except on income of $1 million and above, to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. President Barack Obama's latest position puts the threshold for income tax hikes at $400,000. While the move, called "Plan B" by...

Despite Democrats' intransigent, no-way-no-how screeching about John Boehner's "Plan B," House Republican leaders are pressing forward with the option behind the scenes.  Those efforts received an important boost today when Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform released a statement affirming that the potential plan would not violate the group's oft-cited tax pledge:   ATR has consistently maintained that individual Members of Congress make a pledge to their constituents to oppose and vote against tax increases. The House this week will vote on a tax bill. This legislation—popularly known as “Plan B”--permanently prevents a tax increase on families making less than $1...

So why exactly did this get pushed forward, without consultation with the Senate leadership and without any chance for the GOP base to weigh in? At what point does GOP leadership figure out the "representative" part of their job? This is a huge, indeed potentially catastrophic mistake, and the Speaker ought to withdraw the plan and send everyone home with a vow to make any tax cuts in the new year retroactive. We will go over the president's cliff, but the GOP will have some credibility left and may yet remember that the party of Reagan defends the military that...

I’m going to lay out everything you need to know about the fiscal cliff negotiations. After reading this, you can ignore all of the media’s coverage of this topic as well as various politicians’ announcements pertaining to this subject. All you need to know consists of just one sentence. Politicians are in charge of this issue.These are the same folks who haven’t even produced a budget in four years. The same folks who have run $1+ trillion deficits for four years. The same folks who rarely if ever leave office as a result of their fiscal mistakes. In simple terms,...

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R – TX) gave remarks on the House floor Wednesday evening and read an October 2010 interview with then House Minority Leader John Boehner (R – OH) by National Journal’s Major Garrett. The article was written eight days before election, when Republicans took the House from the Democratic majority. Gohmert, does not support the Speaker’s “Plan B” proposal to the White House, as he believes the proposal is a tax hike and more importantly does not offer spending cuts. Gohmert described Boehner’s words in the 2010 interview as “brilliant” and “words of wisdom.” John Boehner’s own words...

After weeks of relative calm, America's "fiscal cliff" drama has now been overtaken by a flurry of proposals, counterproposals and legislative maneuvering. As various ideas have been floated, they have triggered two main reactions among conservatives. One is to insist that if Republicans firmly stand their ground long enough, they will eventually get what they want from President Obama. Another is to side with House Speaker John Boehner and to act as if anybody who rejects any of his proposals is completely detached from reality. If Republicans refuse to back any deal that doesn't preserve all of the Bush-era rates...

Both sides have given up ground in the "Fiscal Cliff" negotiations in Washington, but the surprise tactic of the Republicans to put forth a "Plan B" has suddenly thrown the whole deal into doubt. Republican House Speaker John Boehner essentially stormed out of the negotiations a couple of days ago and put forth his own bill, which he refers to as "Plan B." This bill extends the Bush tax cuts for all Americans except those making $1 million or more. Greg Valliere, the Chief Political Strategist at Potomac Research Group, says the Republican ploy is the "worst case scenario" for...

It seems to me that plan B is a pretty thought out response to Democrats traps and games and contrary to claims it raises NO taxes, all it does is fully protect the 99.8% by extending the tax rates on the first $1M of everyone’s income. Pretty much every R criticism on it has been telling the untruth that it ‘raises taxes’ which ttells me they have no case. Also Pelosi, Reid and O are all against it. But unfortunately the ‘we want to be defeated by O again’ crowd is once again at it. Let me compare the two...

Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, made his "fiscal cliff" position clear in a press conference today. "We are not going to do anything," said Reid. Reid added, "We are not taking up anything they are working on over there." The top Democrat in the Senate was explaining his inaction on the House plan, the proposal put forward by Republican John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Boehner's plan is being referred to as 'Plan B.' "Boehner described his Plan B as a fallback option to prevent a sweeping tax hike when tax cuts from the administration...