SENATORS MAKE CLIFF PROGRESS — NYT’s Jonathan Weisman on pg. A1:
“Senate leaders are closing in on a path for dealing with the ‘fiscal
cliff’, … opting to try to use a postelection session of Congress to
reach agreement on a comprehensive deficit reduction deal rather than a
short-term solution. Senate Democrats and Republicans remain far apart
on the details, and House Republicans continue to resist any discussion
of tax increases. But lawmakers and aides say that a bipartisan group of
senators is coalescing around an ambitious three-step process to avert a
series of automatic tax increases and deep spending cuts.
“First, senators would come to an agreement on a deficit reduction
target — likely to be around $4 trillion over 10 years — to be reached
through revenue raised by an overhaul of the tax code, savings from
changes to social programs … and cuts to federal programs. Once the
framework is approved, lawmakers would vote on expedited instructions to
relevant congressional committees to draft the details over six months
to a year. … If those efforts failed, another plan would take effect,
probably a close derivative of [Simpson-Bowles]. … Finally, they would
vote to put off the automatic spending cuts ... and tax increases
scheduled to hit all at once in January — but with some deficit
reduction down payment to signal how serious Congress is.”
Senate Leaders at Work on Plan to Avert Automatic Cuts - NYTimes.com
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