Fiscal cliff negotiations: No word on progress after Obama, Boehner negotiate into the night

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Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, left, arrives at the White House for a meeting with President Barack Obama, in Washington, on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012. With time growing short and no "fiscal cliff" progress evident, President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner set face-to-face negotiations for late Thursday at the White House. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON - Face to face with time running short, President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner negotiated at the White House Thursday night in what aides called "frank" talks aimed at breaking a stubborn deadlock and steering the nation away from an economy-threatening "fiscal cliff."

Boehner returned to the Capitol an hour later, briskly walking past reporters without comment. There was no indication whether any progress had been made, though the use of the word "frank" by both sides to describe the talks suggested the president and the speaker stuck hard to their opposing positions.

The meeting came shortly after Obama suggested that the sluggish pace of deficit-cutting talks between the administration and congressional Republicans was a result of a "contentious caucus" of GOP lawmakers who were making it difficult for Boehner to negotiate.

Boehner saw it differently. He said earlier in the day: "Unfortunately, the White House is so unserious about cutting spending that it appears willing to slow-walk any agreement and walk our economy right up to the fiscal cliff."

Thursday night's meeting was the two men's second face-to-face encounter in five days as they seek to find an agreement that avoids major tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to kick in January. Also attending were Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Obama's chief congressional lobbyist, Rob Nabors.

Before the meeting, Boehner accused Obama of dragging out negotiations. Obama is insisting on higher tax rates for household incomes above $250,000 to cut federal deficits; Boehner says he opposes higher rates, though he has said he would be willing to raise tax revenue instead by closing loopholes and deductions.

Obama, in an interview during the day with WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, said that he was hopeful of a "change in attitude" from Republicans on raising taxes on the wealthy. "It shouldn't be hard to get resolved," he said.

He added that the notion of not raising taxes "has become sort of a religion for a lot of members of the Republican Party. I think Speaker Boehner has a contentious caucus, as his caucus is tough on him sometimes so he doesn't want to look like he's giving in to me somehow because that might hurt him in his own caucus."

While the impasse over the president's demand for higher tax rates continues to be a main obstacle in negotiations, Boehner complains that the president refuses to offer spending cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare whose costs are rapidly rising.

The White House has pointed out that it has offered about $600 billion in specific savings over the next decade, including about $350 billion in spending reductions in health care programs such as Medicare.

There's increasing resignation within the GOP that Obama is going to prevail on the rate issue since the alternative is to allow taxes on all workers to go way up when Bush-era tax cuts expire on Dec. 31.

"I think it's time to end the debate on rates," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. "It's exactly what both parties are for. We're for extending the middle-class rates. We can debate the upper-end rates and what they are when we get into tax reform."

"He's got a full house and we're trying to draw an inside straight," said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. When it was observed that making a straight would still be a losing hand, Isakson said: "Yeah, I know."

Boehner remains the key figure, though, caught between a tea party faction and more pragmatic Republicans advising a tactical retreat. He dodged a question Thursday on whether he would be willing to schedule a vote that would permit the top two tax brackets on family income exceeding $250,000 and individual income over $200,000 to rise back to 1990s levels.

Meanwhile, one of Obama's top Senate allies said Thursday that an increase in the Medicare eligibility age is "no longer one of the items being considered by the White House" in negotiations.

Sen. Dick Durbin told reporters that he did not get the information directly from the president or the White House. But as the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Durbin is regularly apprised of the status of negotiations by key players such as Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Senior White House aide Gene Sperling briefed Senate Democrats on the talks Thursday and declined to tell them whether the administration was taking the issue off the table, said a senator who was present. That senator spoke only on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to describe a meeting that was confidential.

Increasing the eligibility age, currently 65, is a key demand by Republicans seeking cost curbs in popular benefit programs in exchange for higher tax revenues.

Durbin's comments on the Medicare eligibility age were surprising, since negotiators including Reid have been careful to not preclude the possibility of agreeing to such an increase — perhaps as a late-stage concession in a potential deal between Obama and Boehner.

At a news conference, Reid again called on House Republicans to allow a vote on renewing Bush-era tax cuts for the 98 per cent of taxpayers whose incomes are below $250,000. Obama vows to force rates on family income exceeding $250,000 from a top rate of 35 per cent to the Clinton-era rate of 39.6 per cent. He said the alternative is to allow tax cuts for everyone to expire.

"At some point, reality should set in," Reid said.

Reid cited comments by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas to Politico.com, in which Cornyn, soon to be the No. 2 Senate Republican, said, "I believe we're going to pass the $250,000 and below sooner or later, and we really don't have much leverage" because those rates are going to expire anyway on Dec. 31.

On Thursday, Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican and leading conservative figure, predicted that Obama would prevail in the fight over taxes.

"He's going to get his wish. I believe we're going to be raising taxes, and not just on the top earners," DeMint, who is leaving the Senate to become president of the Heritage Institution think-tank , said in an appearance on "CBS This Morning."