Obama And Boehner Pledge Neither Will Blink On Taxes In Debt Ceiling Talks (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- A deadlock in the high-stakes talks to raise America's debt limit loomed Friday as President Barack Obama and Republicans each drew lines in the sand over taxes.

Pointing to Friday's disappointing employment report, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Republican leaders said the only thing that they would not do is agree to increase government revenues.

"We can't raise taxes on the very people who create jobs, and keep spending money that we don't have," Boehner told reporters.

"Spending cuts must accompany any increase in the debt limit," he added. "One look at the jobs report should be enough to show the White House, it's time to get serious about cutting spending."

Yet the president told his Democratic Caucus Thursday afternoon that he would not budge on letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire for wealthy Americans "no matter what hostages Republicans took," an attendee told The Huffington Post.

Obama compromised with Republicans last Christmas and allowed cuts for the richest Americans to be extended two years -- much to the dismay of many Democrats.

But when Boehner was asked if Republicans were willing to compromise on taxes Friday, he declared, "We are not."

"Everything's on the table except raising taxes," Boehner said.

Ending the Bush-era cuts would return the nation to Clinton-era tax levels, although Democrats would leave the Bush rates in place for the lower 98 percent of the income ladder.

Boehner also rejected a call by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to restore the Clinton tax rates.

The conservative ex-chairman told CNBC Friday that his support for such a move was "an indicator of how scared I am of this debt problem that has emerged and its order of magnitude." Greenspan argued that spending cuts alone can not solve the problem.

Beohner also criticized the president for not being more involved in the debt talks, having left it in the hands of a bipartisan group headed by Vice President Joe Biden.

"I just think it's time for him to take a more active role," Boehner said, even as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Obama administration officials insisted progress was being made. "If he wants this agreement done by the end of the month, he better get going."

The nation hit the debt limit of $14.3 trillion last month. Since then, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has been juggling the bills to prevent a U.S. default. He has estimated that the nation can keep paying its creditors until Aug. 2.

The bond rating company Moody's warned Thursday that it might cut United States' credit rating if progress is not evident by the middle of July.

A White House official told The Huffington Post Friday that they remain confident, in spite of the opposing, hard-line positions on taxes being taken by both sides in the debt talks.

Comments

[MiddleMolly]

10:39 AM on 06/19/2011

From wizzardly:

"After today Obama has blinked with the dismal job numbers...­.half are McDonald's employees.­...not sarcasm but sadly true. Obama has no credibilit­y. He wants to golf and send his wife off to Africa for his children's summer field trip on our dime. ON OUR DIME. Can't wait for the pictures."

Not true that half of the new jobs are McDonald's jobs. This is either a l!e perpetrated out of ignorance or ourt of a desier to intentionally mislead.

We gained 54,000 jobs in seasonally adjusted numbers. We gained 680,000 jobs in "raw" unadjusted real numbers. Plenty of room in there for McDonald's workers. And we don't have a net figure of how many McD workers came on board this month (after deducting for those who left last month.)

Did McDonald's create half of the new jobs?

http://mollysmiddleamerica.blogspot.com/2011/06/did-mcdonalds-create-half-of-new-jobs.html

About vacations: He took fewer in 2010 than in 2009, and he didn't come close to having the record for presidential vacations in 2009. That honor went to Bush II.

[Ramon Noches]

05:40 PM on 06/06/2011

None of this is surprising as both President Obama and Speaker Boehner come to the table with completely different if not opposite economic philosophies. However, most experts seem to feel the nation would suffer tragic consequences if we don't raise the debt ceiling. Conversely, raising the ceiling isn't something we can do forever. The president supports taxing the rich, the speaker does not as he feels the rich create jobs. In my view, the wealthiest Americans had eight years to create jobs but greed seemed to impede that prospect.

[Rational Thought Plz]

08:58 PM on 06/04/2011

Boehner blinks or we default and everything crashes down. I guess that is one way to stop the spending, destroy our credit. I wonder if they would feel the same way if their salaries and pensions were the first thing to go. They have proven they are nothing if not 'non-essential'.

[Veganie]

08:49 PM on 06/04/2011

To cut the deficit how about revisit the Bush tax cuts and get rid of them for people who earn $250 thousand a year and up.

[l2fog]

08:09 PM on 06/04/2011

Obama care has stifled job growth. The Obama care waivers for all of his cronies like Pelosi is a testament to the failures of this Health disaster bill. Everyone knows that is thing is dead out the gate or every business and every citizen would be running to it. Democrats have passed a bill that has deformed healthcare in America and are killing job growth for businesses. Sure Obama may not of raised taxes (right now) but he has placed more fees on businesses with this health care bill. No one out there wants to hire full time now.

[Trepasky]

11:55 AM on 06/05/2011

I suppose the 20,000,000 un/not/under employed people would think your comment is a bit fantastic as many of them lost their jobs before the HCR was even started but like others, a little bit of information can be dangerous.

We have a demand problem and HCR does not change that either way.

[l2fog]

04:57 PM on 06/05/2011

Please let me be blunt. The currents administrations attempts to revitalize the economy SUCKS and does no good for everybody. Same as Clinton the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.

[redrigs]

08:03 PM on 06/04/2011

If looks could kill! The picture of Boehner looking at Obama does not bode well......

[Ramon Noches]

05:47 PM on 06/06/2011

Speaker Boehner had that same look at the inauguration, and foretold what President Obama could expect in coming years from the Republicans; "no" at every turn.

[Squigibo]

07:42 PM on 06/04/2011

I see the GOP facing a landslide defeat in 2011

[Rational Thought Plz]

08:55 PM on 06/04/2011

Lets hope that happens in 2012 also, since it is an election year ;)

[Squigibo]

07:39 PM on 06/05/2011

doh! got me. lol

[Believer1969]

04:00 PM on 07/11/2011

Oh God I hope so!!!

[Squigibo]

07:40 PM on 06/04/2011

If tax cuts work, why arent the jobs being created? Same failed mantra. The GOP are utterly clueless that what they are saying is known by many to be total garbage.

[Hooponopono]

07:52 PM on 06/04/2011

Squigibo, they are being created.....lots of jobs....tons of them.....all over SE Asia. The leaders of those countries just love American tax cuts for the rich.

[Anthony Perone]

07:31 PM on 06/04/2011

The abyss is now blinking back....and the GOP knows it.

[mashtoe]

05:38 PM on 06/04/2011

Notice the communist rhetoric of GOP leaders like Boehner. He says that only rich people create jobs. And therefore we must put them in a special tax exempt class. To the Republicans (and Democrats) there are different classes: rich job creators and workers. This division of classes is classic Marxism.

What we have today in the US is a type of corporate communism that matches Chinese style communism closely.

[Hooponopono]

06:48 PM on 06/04/2011

The incredible irony in the rich create jobs fantasy is that the rich really do create jobs with the fantastic wealth transefer that Republicans have engineered at the national level and throughout red state America. They create lots and lots of jobs all over SE Asia. The governments of those countries are thrilled with Republican tax cuts for the rich.

[OnePartyEqualsTyranny]

04:51 PM on 06/04/2011

"We can't raise taxes on the very people who create jobs, and keep spending money that we don't have," Boehner told reporters.
WHAT JOBS, open your eyes and put the drinks down.

[Hooponopono]

06:48 PM on 06/04/2011

You'll have to go overseas to see the jobs the rich are creating.

[Believer1969]

04:01 PM on 07/11/2011

That's right!

[proudtohaveserved]

04:08 PM on 06/04/2011

even tgho i v otged for obama he is going to b link first

[Hooponopono]

06:49 PM on 06/04/2011

WANNA BET ! Who blinked first....Obama or Osima Bin Laden???

[mahalo gop]

03:59 PM on 06/04/2011

So far the democrats haven't put any deal on the table; other than letting the Bush tax cuts expire but isn't that just doing nothing? However that won't close the gap without spending cuts, we need to go back to the 2008 spending levels, of 850 billion; meanwhile obama's budget is 1.6 trillion, which is almost double. We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

[dwalpr]

05:17 PM on 06/04/2011

When will you people ever figure out that 'Obama's budget' has to include the bush unpaid for tax cuts implemented during his two unpaid for wars, the R's huge gift to the healthcare industry for Medicare/Medicaid(costs more than ACA), the 2008 recession during Bush's second to last budget and seriously crimped revenues and of course the interest on all the Bush debt, which, of course the R's are threatening to default on presently. None of this is doing anything to help our economy, but is still in the budget. The only major spending Obama did was a ONE-TIME Stimulus ande the R's are still badgering/lying about that even though it consisted of tax cuts, infrastructure jobs and state aid. You are right, Bush created a spending problem and now R's want the middle class to fix it. It won't happen unless you can get back the majority.

[Hooponopono]

06:54 PM on 06/04/2011

I've been coming to HP for a long time, dwalpr. Don't try to reason with conservatives; and, Lord don't trot out the facts. You're attempting to use logic to deal with conservative dogma. It's like trying to convince that kid with a bible that sticks his foot in your door that there is no God.

[Garyatty10]

05:31 PM on 06/04/2011

Please with the Fox talking points. Taxes are the lowest they have been in 60 years. Do the research. The military budget has tripled in the last decade invading foreign countries, buying weapons that the military does not want or need and we have an aging population so medicare costs will rise. Taxes need to be raised, all healthcare costs need to be stabilized, (Which would happen under a single-payor system or at least a public option) military budget cut and other budgtes frozen if we are going to get the budget balanced.

[phread]

03:45 PM on 06/04/2011

STOP THE WARS!!!
END CORPORATE WELFARE!!!

[phread]

03:31 PM on 06/04/2011

republican­s are the ones who ruined the economy...reaganomics is a cluster of neoliberal policies( neoclassical economics)--including privatization, liberalization of world trade, and reduction in state welfare benefits--and reaganomics is an expression of the power of finance in politics. reaganomics is corporate welfare and war...and deficits!!