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Next Move Is Obama’s After Boehner’s Tax Plan Fails

Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Speaker John A. Boehner arrived for a news conference on Friday in Washington.

By JACKIE CALMES

Published: December 21, 2012

WASHINGTON — With House Republicans’ revolt over their leader’s tax plan the evening before, President Obama on Friday faced the challenge of finding a new tax-and-spending solution — perhaps working now with Senate Republicans — to prevent a looming fiscal crisis in January.

The Fiscal Deadline in Washington

The New York Times is following the talks between President Obama and Congressional leaders on the so-called fiscal cliff.

Related

• Obama and Boehner Diverge Sharply on Fiscal Plan(December 20, 2012)

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Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio leaving a meeting Thursday with fellow House Republicans on talks over the “fiscal cliff.”

Yet as the day dawned, officials at the White House remained as incredulous and bewildered as the rest of Washington after Speaker John A. Boehner, short of votes from his Republican majority, was forced to cancel Thursday’s vote on what he called his “Plan B.” It would have extended the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts for all income up to $1 million to avert a tax increase for more than 99 percent of Americans but also, to the anger of the anti-tax conservative mutineers, would have raised the top tax rate for higher income to the level of the Clinton years.

Now Mr. Obama is looking for his own Plan B, just four days before Christmas and 10 days before a deadline for a deal to avoid the tax increases and deep, across-the-board cuts in military and domestic programs scheduled after Dec. 31.

Officials in the administration and Congress, and in both parties, suggested the likeliest route was for Mr. Obama to seek a bipartisan accord with Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is the Senate majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican minority leader, and hope that it could get through the House under deadline pressure. Last year, when the president and Mr. Boehner were at an impasse over getting Congress to approve the essential increase in the nation’s borrowing limit, it was the wily Mr. McConnell who first suggested the legislative way out of the mess. But Mr. McConnell faces re-election in 2014 and will be very reluctant to engage in any deal-making that could draw him a primary challenge in his conservative state.

Mr. McConnell has given no indication of his next move, but a spokesman, Don Stewart, offered no hint on Friday morning of an immediate helping hand. “I sure hope they have a plan of their own,” said Mr. Stewart, referring to Democrats Mr. Obama, Mr. Reid and the House minority leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi.

A number of Senate Republicans, unlike most party colleagues in the House, say they could support a deficit-reduction plan raising tax rates on high incomes, if Democrats agree to significant reductions in the growth of Medicare and Social Security. But both Republicans and Democrats are being assailed by party allies — groups on the right against any tax increases and on the left against cuts in entitlement-program spending.

If Mr. Obama were to reach some agreement that passes in the Senate, it still must get through the House. That, people in both parties say, could confront Mr. Boehner — who controls the Republican Party’s one lever of power — with a decision about whether to allow a vote on a measure that presumably could not pass with Republican votes but would have to be carried over the line with Democrats’ votes.

That prospect in turn gives rise to the question of whether Mr. Boehner can survive the House vote for speaker on Jan. 3, when the new Congress will include fewer Republicans given party losses in November.

Adam Jentleson, spokesman for Mr. Reid said in a statement, “It is now clear that to protect the middle class from the fiscal cliff, Speaker Boehner must allow a bill to pass with a combination of Democratic and Republican votes.”

The House, at Mr. Boehner’s direction, closed down until after Christmas and members dispersed. The president, who once had planned to leave on Friday with his family for its traditional Christmas vacation in Hawaii, will stay at the White House pending “the next moves,” said a senior administration official, who, like most others interviewed, would not be identified given the uncertainty about the next step. “If there is action this weekend, he will be here.”

On Thursday night, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said in a statement, “The president’s main priority is to ensure that taxes don’t go up on 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses in just a few short days. The president will work with Congress to get this done, and we are hopeful that we will be able to find a bipartisan solution quickly that protects the middle class and our economy.   

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