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Mitch McConnell: $4T Deficit-Reduction Deal Likely Off the Table
Fox News ^ | 07/10/2011

Posted on 07/10/2011 7:12:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News that he thinks a major deficit-reduction deal cutting $4 trillion over the next decade is off the table, claiming Democrats are pushing too hard for tax increases.

"Everything they've told me and the speaker is that to get a big package would require big tax increases in the middle of the economic situation," McConnell told "Fox News Sunday." He called the prospect of tax hikes a "terrible idea." The Senate GOP leader is the latest to weigh in on the rollercoaster negotiations that are set to continue Sunday evening at the White House. That summit is taking on fresh urgency after House Speaker John Boehner announced he was lowering expectations about the size of the deficit-reduction package that can be achieved over concerns about the rift between the two parties.

Boehner announced Saturday that he wants to focus on a package more in line with what was being discussed in earlier negotiations led by Vice President Biden. Those talks centered on about $2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. The White House in recent days had raised the bar to about $4 trillion, but Boehner dialed things back following a conversation with President Obama Saturday evening. McConnell backed Boehner on Sunday.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: budget; debt; deficit; mitchmcconnell
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To: verga

Roger that! OOOOOOOOORAH!


21 posted on 07/10/2011 7:48:51 AM PDT by Absolutely Nobama (A Movement that does not move cannot call itself a Movement.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Dear Republicans of the House and Senate:

Do you want to be reelected?

Defund ... Defund ... Defund.
and when finished Defund some more
of the WORTHLESS programs and Departments.

A winning formula to stop zer0care,
and zer0's out of control spending.

Dear Republicans, do you want to be reelected?
Senate Republicans back the House Republicans,
or suffer the consequences.

22 posted on 07/10/2011 7:50:35 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)
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To: PalmettoMason
The republicans are folding faster than the bellows on Myron Floren's accordion.

For REJECTING Obama's phony spending "cuts" which are REALLY tax increases? My fear was that Boehner would accept them. Instead he has REJECTED them.

23 posted on 07/10/2011 7:52:42 AM PDT by PJ-Comix (FREE gas via coupons is my dream)
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To: verga
Last time I checked we controlled the house.

One would never know it!!

GOP = Party of Partisanship.

DEM = Party of street fighters and manipulators of news.

I am so done with the Republican party, having changed by registration to I back in 2006.
24 posted on 07/10/2011 7:52:54 AM PDT by Cheerio (Barry Hussein Soetoro-0bama=The Complete Destruction of American Capitalism)
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To: SeekAndFind

None of this stuff is as complicated as our elected prima donnas want to make it seem.

Any one of us could, as president, simply tell both houses that we want the budget for the coming year dialed back five percent of this year’s budget. Five percent. Approve it or get out of town.

Every one of us has been in a situation at home or work where things had to be trimmed. Only in Washington do they fight about a “cut” of one or two percent in the ten or fifteen percent increase they’ve already tacitly agreed upon.

It is disgraceful.

Dennis Miller has the right idea on the debt ceiling. Let the crunch come (if there even is a crunch in the offing). Then let every department head and every damn whinging head bureaucrat come in and make his case to continue receiving funds.

As Miller points out, at least half of the clownish mandarins would be too embarrassed even to come in and explain what the hell their budgets have been going toward.

Five percent a year reductions on BASELINE for five years. Then we would begin to be able to recognize America again.


25 posted on 07/10/2011 7:53:08 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: SeekAndFind

Folks the Republicans can not do much until they take control of the Federal gov. Kicking the can down the road until 2012 is the wisest thing the GOP can do. Take whatever cuts you can get, no new taxes and rise ceiling enough to get thur 2012 election. When take the issue to the voters.


26 posted on 07/10/2011 7:55:36 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: kittymyrib

“How is it that Pelosi and Reid could bind future Congresses to spending $1.5 billion this year on ObamaCare, before it kicks in? Can they only bind future Congresses to spend but not cut?”

A spending bill creates an automatic constituency of people or institutions who will benefit. These beneficiaries hire lobbyists and make political contributions to ensure their largesse. But spending cuts create no such momentum. A cut is an orphan with nobody to look after it. The more money in a spending bill the bigger and more powerful the momentum to protect that money. It takes a HUGE commitment to undo a spending bill and a lot of personal political capital will be expended and futures damaged in the undoing. But a spending cut can be overcome by simply ignoring it. What’s the penalty for ignoring it? Nothing.


27 posted on 07/10/2011 7:58:46 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: jpsb
Obama strategy was to sucker the Republicans into accepting his spending "cuts" which were really tax increases and then in 2012 he could point at the Republicans and claim they participated in the raising of unpopular taxes. Fortunately Boehner REJECTED that deal. For weeks all we heard here was the fear of the Republicans accepting tax increases. Okay, Boehner has just firmly REJECTED those tax increases and what is the reaction? "Lousy RINO!!!"

Beam me up, Scotty!

28 posted on 07/10/2011 8:00:42 AM PDT by PJ-Comix (FREE gas via coupons is my dream)
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To: edpc

Mitch always reminds me of my friendly neighborhood mortician and I suspect he uses mortician’s wax for makeup. I sure hope he and Boehner don’t make a bad deal, but I fear otherwise. Hold tight to your wallet.


29 posted on 07/10/2011 8:01:37 AM PDT by mighty atlas
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To: Principled

You’re absolutely correct. All deals should be in the same time frame. A 10-year plan is nothing more than a wimpy way to kick the can down the road, and essentially continue doing business as usual. It’s amazing the Republicans, and Boehner specifically, are dumb enough to buy into that kind of plan. To be honest with the American people, and to show some real balls, we should reflect the debt increase, the spending reductions, and the entitlement deficits, in the 2011/2012 budget. Anything else is patently dishonest. A 10-year plan is no plan at all. And, an honest budget for 2011/2012 forces Obama to make some real decisions, a concept a concept as foreign to him as his roots.


30 posted on 07/10/2011 8:02:56 AM PDT by RLM
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To: PJ-Comix
Lol, we only control the House and could lose that in 2012 if we are not careful. Who ever makes the cuts needed to restore fiscal sanity we get pummeled at the polls next election. The Marxists are demigoding this issue and with just about half the country getting a government check the demigoding will work. Fools rush in where wisemen fear to tread. Conservatives are not yet strong enough to fight this fight, take what you can get an live to fight another day. I don't see this as a cave in at all, I see the GOP playing smart for a change.

Also at some point the markets will solve our spending problems.

31 posted on 07/10/2011 8:14:49 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: The_Media_never_lie

It sounds like Joe Bite-Me countered the GOP plan with a proposal for $2 trillion in cuts and $2 trillion in new taxes

So the GOP said, OK, we’ll settle for your proposed $2 trillion in cuts.

Just no new tAXES

LOL! Bite-me is like the black sheriff in “Blazing Saddles” pointing a gun at his own head...


32 posted on 07/10/2011 8:26:38 AM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: Gen.Blather

all budgets and tax reforms, and much legislation, hase impacts beyond the term of the adminstration that passes them

remember that obamacare is loaded to kick in after the 2012 elections


33 posted on 07/10/2011 8:28:31 AM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: edpc

Mitch McConnell... The Gobbler.


34 posted on 07/10/2011 8:30:00 AM PDT by tennmountainman
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To: kittymyrib

works for me! We have too much duplication in Fed/state gov’ts.


35 posted on 07/10/2011 8:32:30 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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To: jpsb

Lol, we only control the House and could lose that in 2012 if we are not careful

The only that will be lost in 2012 is a bunch of RINO’s.
Conservatives are in a foul mood!


36 posted on 07/10/2011 8:34:46 AM PDT by tennmountainman
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To: tennmountainman
I sometimes don't think folks realize just how deeply in debt the USA is. Right now we borrow 43 cents out of every dollar we spend. So just what would happen if Federal Spending was reduced by 43%? It would be so bad I can not imagine it. Riots for sure, maybe even armed rebellion. Massive disruptions to food and energy distributions, massive unemployment, massive just about everything really really bad. Anyone that wants to go there is insane.
37 posted on 07/10/2011 8:49:39 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: PJ-Comix
For REJECTING Obama's phony spending "cuts" which are REALLY tax increases? My fear was that Boehner would accept them. Instead he has REJECTED them.

Thanks, I read it the same way.

All these reports are confusing, and I'm suspecting it's because they are full of half truths, but I'm not seeing the Repubs caving on anything that matters.

38 posted on 07/10/2011 9:12:26 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle
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To: SeekAndFind

“...and they punt!”

Putting off for another day.


39 posted on 07/10/2011 9:16:40 AM PDT by Vendome ("Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it anyway")
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To: SeekAndFind
Very important point made in the Washington Post Article on this subject, "....plan that would slice $4 trillion from projected borrowing over the next decade...."

That's CUT $4 TRILLION FROM PROJECTED BORROWING!!! That means that they are planning to keep borrowing. . . . to buy more votes!!!!

These Marxist fools have got to go!!!!

40 posted on 07/10/2011 9:39:30 AM PDT by CharlyFord (t)
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