New Year’s revelers could be counting down the seconds to a fiscal-cliff deadline after economic talks hit an impasse yesterday amid finger-pointing from President Obama, who accused Republicans of not listening to the American people.
“They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“But the way they’re behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme.”
AP
Barack Obama
Hours later, talks between Democrats and Republicans over spending cuts and tax increases broke down over a GOP push to cut Social Security benefits.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said there were “fierce differences” between the sides.
“We are not going to have any Social Security cuts. At this stage, that just doesn’t seem appropriate,” he said. “We’re open to discussion about entitlement reforms, but we are now taking this in a different direction.”
He said Democrats, including Obama, would make “difficult concessions” to reform Social Security and other entitlements, such as Medicare and Medicaid, as part of a comprehensive debt-cutting plan. But not now.
“We will not agree to cut Social Security benefits as part of a smaller short-term agreement, especially if that agreement gives more handouts to the rich,” Reid said.
Senate Republicans agreed to nix the proposal, which would lower annual cost-of-living raises in Social Security benefits. But the compromise remained snagged on Democrats’ proposal to spend all of the new revenue from higher taxes.
That revenue — $850 billion over 10 years gained by raising taxes on families with incomes over $250,000 — would be spent on eliminating the cliff’s automatic spending cuts and extending long-term unemployment benefits.
“They want basically to take tax increases and spend more with the money, spend all of it,” said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH).
“One of the reasons the president purported to want the tax increases was to impact the deficit,” she said, adding that, instead, the White House and Senate Democrats offered “higher taxes and more spending.”
Reid still held out hope for a deal, even as the day ended without a vote.
“I’m not overly optimistic, but I am cautiously optimistic that we can get something done,” he said.
Senators will reconvene today at 11 a.m.
A Republican Senate aide close to the talks said Democrats refused to make a counteroffer to a GOP proposal introduced the day before.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reached out to Vice President Joe Biden in an attempt to “jump-start” the talks, the aide said.
“Usually, these things are moving much more quickly. Usually, it doesn’t take 17 hours to get a counteroffer. Usually, there is some sense of urgency when you have 48 hours before a tax increase of this magnitude,” the aide said.
Republicans disputed Obama’s version of events.
“Americans elected President Obama to lead, not cast blame,” said House Speaker John Boehner.
“The president’s comments today are ironic, as a recurring theme of our negotiations was his unwillingness to agree to anything that would require him to stand up to his own party.”
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Obama is part of the problem.
“The president is doing nothing about the addiction that the administration and he have on spending,” Barrasso said. “He’s the spender in chief.”
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on a combination of fiscal deadlines that will cost Americans more money if they are missed.
If nothing gets done before tonight’s midnight deadline, the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts will increase tax rates, damage the economy and cost the average middle-class family $2,000 a year, Obama said.
“There is a basic fairness that is at stake in this whole thing that the American people understand, and they listened to an entire year’s debate about it,” Obama said.
“They made a clear decision about the approach they prefer, which is a balanced, responsible package.”
His alternative, scaled-down package would prevent tax hikes on family incomes up to $250,000, extend long-term unemployment benefits and postpone federal spending cuts.
The Senate is expected to take up the Obama plan if the Reid-McConnell negotiations fail.
Obama said that if all else fails, he will introduce a bill with the new Congress on Jan. 4 to cut taxes on middle-class families.
Additional reporting by Gerry Shields
smiller@nypost.com
