Courtesy of Mish.
Agreement that something needs to be done with soaring deficits is easy to find, in the US and abroad. Actually doing something reasonable about huge deficits has proven impossible to date.
Fiscal Deficit Blame Game
Bloomberg reports Geithner Joins Boehner in Trading Blame Over Fiscal Cliff Talks.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and House Speaker John Boehner hardened their positions over the fiscal cliff, each blaming the other for a standoff that could lead to more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts in January.
“There’s not going to be an agreement without rates going up,” Geithner said in a taped interview that aired today on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Republicans will “own the responsibility for the damage” if they “force higher rates on virtually all Americans because they’re unwilling to let tax rates go up on 2 percent of Americans.”
Republican Boehner said the White House is wasting time.
“I would say we’re nowhere, period,” Boehner said on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “We’ve put a serious offer on the table by putting revenues up there to try to get this question resolved. But the White House has responded with virtually nothing.”
There’s “clearly a chance” that there won’t be an agreement in time to avert the fiscal cliff, Boehner said on the Fox program. “Just the threat of the fiscal cliff is already hurting the economy.”
Geithner appeared on five talk shows today. In the interviews, taped Nov. 30, he challenged Republicans to make a counteroffer to the Obama administration’s framework plan.
Republican Ball
Gene Sperling, Obama’s top economic adviser, challenged Republican congressional leaders to put an offer on the table.
“It’s for them now to come forward with their plan, with their details, so that we can start working quickly to getting an agreement,” said Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council, on “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. …
