Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, among the coffee guests. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

This is a day of new beginnings.

On the morning that President Barack Obama stands to deliver the inaugural address for his second term, he has some guests in at the White House this morning:

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia among them — the Republican majority leader of the House that gave Obama fits in the second half of his first term.

“Headed to the @WhiteHouse with my wife Diana for coffee with the President, Vice President and their lovely wives,” Cantor wrote on his Twitter account this morning.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, also joined the coffee klatch.

Original post is Cantor at White House: ‘Lovely Wives’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks on ongoing 'fiscal cliff' negotiations with Republican members of Congress on Dec. 19, 2012 in Washington.

President Barack Obama, framing the fiscal debate in Washington as a question of protecting the middle class, asked members of Congress today to spend the coming holiday break thinking of their obligations to the American public.

“Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working with leaders of both parties on a proposal to get our deficit under control, avoid tax hikes on the middle class,” the president said this evening at a podium in the West Wing of the White House. “I offered to cooperate with members of Congress. I met them half way on taxes, and I met them more than half way on spending.”

“In 10 days, we face a deadline,” he said, pointing out that negotiators are divided over taxes for the wealthiest as automatic tax increases and spending cuts are set to take effect on Jan. 1. “All of us, every single one of us, agrees that tax rates shouldn’t go up for the other 98 percent of Americans… At the very least, let’s agree on what we can agree on.”

“Averting this middle-class tax hike is not a Democratic responsibility or a Republican responsibility,” he said, voicing optimism about the possibility still for a compromise. “Nobody gets 100 percent of what they want. Everybody’s got to give a little bit.”

The president is headed for Hawaii for the Christmas holiday with his family, and members of Congress are headed home — with everyone expected to return the middle of next week.

As they leave town for the holidays, he said, “everybody can cool off… everybody can drink some egg nog… and then I’d ask every member of Congress to think about that while they’re back home.”

Obama met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada today, and the president said this evening that he had just spoken with House Speaker John Boehner, who said this morning — after failing to find support for his plan among his party’s caucus — that it’s up to the Democrats to advance a plan. The Democrats “run Washington,” Boehner said.

“The two leading protagonists are the president and Speaker Boehner,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York told reporters today. “If they come to an agreement, it will not be too hard to get the Senate to fall in line,” the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat said. “If they don’t come to an agreement, I don’t think the Senate even coming to an agreement would help, and it’s not going to happen.”

“The Senate has already passed a bill to keep income taxes from going up on middle-class families,” Obama said on Nov. 30. “They’re ready to vote on that same thing. And if we can just get a few House Republicans on board, we can pass the bill in the House. It will land on my desk, and I am ready — I’ve got a bunch of pens ready to sign this bill. ”

Kathleen Hunter and Joe Sobczyk contributed to this report. 

Original post is Obama: Middle Class Awaits Action — Calls on Congress to Compromise by Political Capital.

Photograph by Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images

Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Dec. 18, 2012 on Capitol Hill.

The House was supposed to vote tonight on Plan B.

The House Republicans summoned a conference instead, and out came members saying:

No vote.

This was House Speaker John Boehner’s fall-back — the alternative to the fiscal cliff talks, his chance to demonstrate that he could rally enough votes of his own caucus to support his own negotiating stance with the White House: Raise taxes on household income over $1 million and protect the rest. It was a ploy from the start.

Instead, it has become Boehner’s setback.

“The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass,’ Boehner said in a statement.

Earlier today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the plan had the votes needed to pass.

Coming out of their conference tonight, Rep. Fred Upton said that’s it, they’re out of here until after Christmas.

Which is when the Senate will come back.

With six days left before a collision of automatic tax increases and spending cuts is scheduled.

That’s called the fiscal cliff.

Tonight, it looked a lot closer.

“The odds go up that we go over the fiscal cliff,” said Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican.

Richard Rubin and Derek Wallbank contributed to this report. 

Original post is Plan B = Plan-Ex = Cliff, on the GPS by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner enters a press conference where he spoke about the fiscal cliff.

House Speaker John Boehner, after several conversations with President Barack Obama either in person or by telephone, has gone to the White House again today.

With a Dec. 31 deadline for averting a pileup of automatic tax increases and spending cuts bearing down on them, the two leaders have inched toward a potential compromise.

The president started these talks insisting on $1.6 trillion in tax revenue. The speaker opened with $800 billion in revenue, all of it from limiting tax exemptions.

The president has come down to $1.4 trillion. The speaker has gone up to $1 trillion.

The president has insisted on raising tax rates for top earners, households earning more than $250,000 a year. The speaker had refused, until late last week when, by accounts of people familiar with the talks, he offered to raise rates for  people making more than $1 million a year.

The speaker, in turn, has insisted upon concessions in entitlement spending.

If their potential meeting point rests in some figure around $1.2 trillion in taxes, and some cutoff for taxpayers protected from the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts on Dec. 31 at a household income of $500,000 — and if the two can find an accommodation on Medicare and other entitlements — they could have the makings of a deal.

The  meeting at the White House today lasted about 45 minutes, according to Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. He said there would be no “readout” of the details. The speaker did not respond to reporters’ questions afterward.

This is what both Boehner’s office and the White House have done following past talks, generally ending with an assurance that “the lines of communication” remain open.

This was the fifth personal talk.

They met, along with other congressional leaders, at the White House on Nov. 16.

They talked by phone on Dec. 5, and met at the White House on Dec. 9. They met again at the White House on Dec. 13, and by phone on Friday. Today, together again.

With eight dealing days left before Christmas, two weeks to the fiscal cliff.

Original post is Obama-Boehner Talks: 5.0 by Political Capital.

House Speaker John Boehner opened with $800 billion in tax revenue.

They differ sharply over how to raise it, the White House with tax increases, the House with tightened tax exemptions.

Yet there are new signs of movement toward a middle ground.

President Barack Obama and Boehner spoke today as they traded offers, according to a Republican congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The president reduced his demand for new tax revenue from $1.6 trillion to $1.4 trillion, said another Republican congressional aide who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the talks. White House officials didn’t respond to requests for comment about the offer.

“We sent the White House a counteroffer that would achieve tax and entitlement reform to solve our looming debt crisis and create more American jobs,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. “We’re still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the balanced approach he promised the American people.”

Jim Rowley and Roxana Tiron contributed to this. See their full report at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Fiscal Talks Inch Toward Middle by Political Capital.

Photograph by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner during a meeting with bipartisan group of congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Nov. 16, 2012 in Washington.

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met today at the White House to talk about the dispute over the U.S. budget, representatives of both men said.

And the identical statements released by the White House and speaker’s office indicated that the lines remain open.

“This afternoon, the president and Speaker Boehner met at the White House to discuss efforts to resolve the fiscal cliff,” said identical statements from Amy Brundage, a White House spokeswoman, and Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. “We’re not reading out details of the conversation, but the lines of communication remain open.”

Today’s meeting is the first known face-to-face conversation between the two men since Nov. 16, when Boehner and other congressional leaders sat down with Obama at the White House. They have talked on the telephone since then.

They are working to avert the automatic tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1 if Congress does not act. The White House has proposed $1.6 trillion in new revenue, including higher tax rates for the highest-earning taxpayers. Boehner has offered $800 billion in new revenue, solely from limiting tax exemptions. Both sides also are negotiating over spending cuts to accompany that new revenue.

Original post is Obama, Boehner Talk – `Lines Open’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Speaker of the House John Boehner outside his office at the Capitol on Dec. 7, 2012.

Written with Mark Silva

House Speaker John Boehner and fellow Republicans have maintained from the start that their opposition to tax increases on people earning more than $250,000 involves the impact this could have on small-business owners.

The data show that small-business owners are a small percentage of that top-2 percent of earners whom President Barack Obama wants to tax more, with the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts posing an increase from 35 to 39.6 percent in the top income bracket.

Yet the speaker, who has maintained adamant opposition to increases in anyone’s tax rates, left a window open today when asked if Congress might fashion a way to prevent small businesses from paying more: An exemption for small business owners who file as individuals, people who derive their income from the partnership or Subchapter S corporation formed to run the business.

At a news conference on Capitol Hill today, the speaker was asked if he could “see some way” to accept “a tax-rate increase and protect small businesses at the same time” that might include the top rate “going up to 37 percent or some middle ground” instead of the top rate of 39.6 percent.

Boehner replied: “There are a lot of things that are possible to put the revenue the president seeks on the table. But none of it’s going to be possible if the president insists on his position, insists on my way or the highway,” he said. “That’s not the way to get an agreement” that “is important for the American people and very important for our economy.”

Boehner’s spokesman, Michael Steel, declined to comment on the speaker’s comment.

Negotiations over an agreement to avert that convergence of tax increases and spending cuts slated to take effect at year’s end familiarly known as the fiscal cliff have come down to direct talks between the president and the speaker.  Boehner said today that President Barack Obama has “wasted” another week with his insistence on tax increases. Yet all the talk around these talks has pointed to willingness among both sides to consider, in some fashion, the tax increases the president wants and the spending cuts the speaker demands.

Original post is Boehner’s Opening: Tax Carve-Out for Small Business Owners? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The Capitol is reflected in Washington.

That’s the share of Americans who say that President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress will reach an agreement to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center and the Washington Post.

Forty-nine percent said the two sides wouldn’t come to an agreement.

A deadlock would trigger a combination of $607 billion in tax hikes and spending reductions beginning in January, which the Congressional Budget Office and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke say would hurt the economy. It is Bernanke who coined the confluence of baked-in tax increases and spending cuts at year’s end as a fiscal cliff.

Congressional Republicans will bear the brunt of the blame if an agreement isn’t reached, the poll shows. Fifty-three percent of respondents said that Republicans would be more to blame in the absence of an accord, compared with 27 percent who said Obama would bear more responsibility for failure.

“We have the potential of getting a deal done,” Obama said yesterday on Bloomberg Television in his first interview since he was re-elected on Nov. 6. The president called for a “balanced, responsible approach” requiring an increase in tax rates on the top 2 percent of income-earners.

Republicans including House Speaker John Boehner don’t want to increase tax rates and are pushing for more spending cuts than the White House has been willing to accept.

The survey of 1,003 adults was conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 2.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 40 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Decorations in the State Dining Room during the first viewing of the White House 2012 holiday decorations on Nov. 28, 2012.

The White House is festooned with decorated trees and a model of the first dog, Bo, all for the season’s holidays.

And last night, the president opened the doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to members of Congress for one of many holiday parties that will be held this season.

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, one of the central figures in negotiations with President Barack Obama for a potential agreement to avert the so-called fiscal cliff at year’s end, was among the guests at the congressional reception.

For now, this is an arms’-length negotiation: Boehner did not join the receiving line of guests who queue up for a photograph with the president and fist lady, according to an administration official, and the speaker did not speak with the president.

Original post is Boehner at White House: Humbug by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

TSA employees demonstrate an advanced image technology (AIT) millimeter wave scanner using new Automated Target Recognition software at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada.

House Republicans haven’t tired of working over one of their favorite punching bags, the Transportation Security Administration, holding more than two dozen hearings in 2011 and 2012. Agency Administrator John Pistole now is drawing the line.

Pistole not only sent word today that he won’t testify as invited at a hearing Thursday at the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on how TSA is affecting the “free flow of aviation commerce,” he also said no one else from the agency will attend. The committee “has no jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration,” he said in a statement.

He took his stand one day after the committee’s term-limited chairman, Florida Republican John Mica, ended his long-shot campaign to retain the helm in the next Congress and threw his support to Representative Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican.

Mica’s lack of official jurisdiction over TSA under House rules didn’t stop him from spotlighting what he called its mission creep, bloated management and history of ordering costly scanning machines that didn’t work. He inserted language into the Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill this year that overruled Pistole and forced TSA to let more airports turn screening over to private security companies.

If Shuster’s reaction is any indication, Pistole’s declaration hardly settles things.

“I don’t think we have direct jurisdiction but when they impede commerce, when they impede the traveling public, they need to answer to the committee,” Shuster said in an interview.

Shuster said he “absolutely” expects TSA officials to appear at transportation committee hearings. Asked what will happen if they refuse to testify, Shuster said: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

TSA officials previously testified before three joint hearings of the Transportation and Oversight and Government Reform committees. Pistole answered Mica’s questions in public once before, when Mica sat in on a hearing of a homeland security subcommittee led by Alabama Republican Mike Rogers.

TSA “will continue to work with its committees of jurisdiction to pursue effective and efficient security solutions,” Pistole said. He pointed out the agency has provided 425 background briefings for members of Congress in addition to testifying at 38 hearings.

Chris Stromm contributed to this post

Original post is TSA to Mica: You Have No Jurisdiction by Political Capital.