Dec 21, 1:39 PMBy ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner signaled on Friday he’s still open to negotiations with President Barack Obama on avoiding across-the-board tax increases set to hit taxpayers Jan. 1, but sounded pessimistic about reaching a grand deal with the president.
“How we get there, God only knows,” Boehner told a Capitol Hill news conference just hours after his rank-and-file handed him a stunning tactical defeat.
The Republican leader spoke the morning after he was forced by his members to abandon legislation that would have raised taxes on incomes above $1 million.
In the aftermath, Boehner said any deal with the president to avoid the looming “fiscal cliff” would require more compromise by Obama and greater involvement of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
But compromise appeared elusive in the Senate, where Reid and McConnell swapped barbs over how to deal with tax rates.
Reid again called on the House to pass an Obama-backed Senate plan to raise top tax rates on households making more than $250,000 a year. He also urged Boehner to return to the negotiating table with Obama.
McConnell countered with an offer to vote on prior House legislation extending all Bush-era tax rates – including those earning more than $1 million – a measure that’s more generous to upper-bracket taxpayers than even the failed House measure. He appeared to suggest he would delay any attempt to pass Obama’s plan.
McConnell said that if Democrats have a plan that can win a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate then “let’s vote.”