A Republican lawmaker working on budgetary issues told "Fox News
Sunday" that he believes President Barack Obama wants to go over the
so-called fiscal cliff at the end of the year, and may not be
negotiating in good faith.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the chairman of the Republican policy
committee, told Fox's Chris Wallace that he expects the U.S. will go
over the cliff.
"I believe the president is eager to go over the cliff for political
purposes," Barrasso said. "I think he sees a political victory at the
bottom of the cliff: He gets all this additional tax revenue for new
programs, he gets to cut the military, which Democrats have been calling
for for years, and he gets to blame Republicans for it."
For the past week,
Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner worked to pass what he
called Plan B, a tax deal that had no chance of receiving presidential
approval, in an attempt to twist Obama's arm ahead of the end of the
year, when the Bush tax cuts expire.
That plan failed when Boehner could not wrangle enough votes from the more conservative elements of his caucus, leaving Obama to plead with
House Republicans late on Friday to sign off on at least a limited
package of tax cuts for the middle class, before everyone sees their
taxes rise.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee and who appeared on the show as the Democratic counterpoint,
responded that responsibility for making a deal lies with more than just
the president, and that Congress needs to show more willingness to meet
Obama halfway.
"We only have nine days left here," Conrad said. "When are we going to get serious about actual solutions?"
Despite the amplified rhetoric about a fiscal "cliff" that could
possibly doom the American economy, few in Washington seem to be
treating the imminent tax hikes as a true doomsday. Many politicians are
on holiday this weekend, and the Sunday shows -- normally a major
battleground for political disputes of this sort -- were populated
largely with bit players in the debate.
And as The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim reported Saturday, there are no signs that federal agencies
are preparing any major changes ahead of the deadline, suggesting they
do not anticipate any direct fallout from the sequestration that goes
into effect at the end of the year.
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