Senate deal forged in flurry of final negotiations

WASHINGTON (AP) ? They had 80 hours to finish or fail.

Stuck in a "fiscal cliff" stalemate, trust nearing tatters, President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans changed the game after Christmas. It took the rekindling of an old friendship between Vice President Joe Biden and GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, an extraordinary flurry of secret offers, a pre-dawn Senate vote on New Year's Day and the legislative muscling that defines Washington on deadline.

Yet the fate of the final agreement remains in doubt as House Republicans show signs of rebellion against the plan.

How the final days of private negotiations pulled the country ? maybe only temporarily ? back from the precipice of the fiscal cliff marked a rare moment of bipartisanship for a divided government. Several officials familiar with talks requested anonymity to discuss them because they were not authorized to discuss the private details publicly.

Obama, having cut short his Christmas vacation in Hawaii, huddled with congressional leaders Friday afternoon at the White House. Talks between the president and House Speaker John Boehner had failed, so Obama put the fate of the fiscal cliff in the hands of McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

McConnell made the first move. The Kentucky Republican proposed a plan late Friday night that would extend tax cuts expiring Jan. 1 on family income up to $750,000 a year, according to officials. He also wanted to keep tax rates on wealthy estates at 35 percent, slow the growth of Social Security cost-of-living increases, and pay for an offset of the sequester ? Congress's term for across-the-board spending cuts __ by means-testing Medicare. His offer did not include the extension of unemployment benefits Obama had demanded.

Democrats balked and began preparing a counteroffer. It called for extending tax cuts for family income up to $350,000, a concession from Obama's campaign pledge to cap the threshold at $250,000. The Democratic leader also insisted that any deal include a way to deal with the sequester, plus an extension of the jobless benefits for 2 million Americans.

The negotiating teams traded ideas back and forth on a wintry Saturday. Shortly before 7 p.m., McConnell presented another offer. He dropped the tax cut threshold to $550,000, put the sequester on the table, and offered a one-year extension of the jobless benefits as long as they were paid for through Social Security savings.

Rather than make a counteroffer, the Senate Democratic negotiating team said it was going home for the night. They reconvened Sunday morning ? less than two days before the combination of tax hikes and spending cuts were due to kick in ? but still had nothing new to present to McConnell.

Reid's inaction, officials said, was due in part to McConnell's insistence on keeping the tax cut threshold above $500,000, a level Obama refused to agree to.

A frustrated McConnell felt he had one last option. He called Biden, his longtime Senate colleague and frequent negotiating partner, and implored him to step in. Seeking to up the pressure on the White House, McConnell publicly announced that he was reaching out to Biden during remarks from the Senate floor during the rare Sunday session.

Until this late stage, Biden had played a secondary role in the "fiscal cliff" talks. He spent Saturday at his home in Wilmington, Del., and was planning to travel to the Caribbean island of St. Croix with his family for the New Year's holiday.

Obama and Reid both agreed that Biden, a 36-year veteran of the Senate, should take the lead. And once he did, negotiations with McConnell rapidly accelerated.

Around 8 p.m. Sunday, Obama, Biden and staffers met in the Oval Office to discuss what the vice president would deliver to McConnell as the administration's final offer.

The president set the upper limit for the tax cut extension at family income of $450,000. The sequester must be dealt with, he said, and any delay must be offset through a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases. And Obama demanded that the jobless benefits be extended for one year without a way to make up the $30 billion cost.

Shortly after midnight, Biden had McConnell's consent on nearly all of the outstanding issues. Only the sequester was unresolved, though both men were open to a plan that called for a separate vote on the sequester, pending Reid's consent.

The president, vice president and senior staff met in the Oval Office until 2 a.m. to talk through the final details. Obama's legislative director, Rob Nabors, then headed to Capitol Hill to join Senate negotiators in drafting the outlines of a bill that could be moved on quickly Monday.

Nabors worked continuously throughout the final stages, stopping at home only to change his shirt after leaving the Capitol and before heading to the White House before 7 a.m. Monday.

By then, the White House had spoken to Reid, who rejected the notion of holding a separate sequester vote. Biden broke the news to McConnell in a pre-dawn phone call.

The sequester remained the sticking point throughout Monday, with Biden trading proposals with McConnell's office for much of the day. By early evening, discussions coalesced around delaying the automatic spending cuts by two months and paying for the move through a combination of new spending cuts and revenue increases. A hiccup over the estate tax was also resolved.

Shortly before 9 p.m., with three hours until the deadline, Biden and McConnell agreed to the final deal. After Obama called Reid and Pelosi to get their sign-off, the vice president headed up to Capitol Hill to sell the bill to Senate Democrats.

Lawmakers and staff rang in the new year in cramped offices in the West Wing and on Capitol Hill, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and the stray bottle of cheap champagne.

Midnight also marked the moment the government technically went over the "fiscal cliff," although financial markets were closed Tuesday for the holiday. But optimism ran high on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue that the impact would be negligible. The Senate overwhelming approved the Biden-McConnell deal in the early hours of Tuesday morning and sent the bill to the House for final approval.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-deal-forged-flurry-final-negotiations-222703245--politics.html

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Marriage on the Rocks | Steve Nakamoto - Relationship Expert

What do you do when you have a beautiful house, two great children, and a Marriage on the Rocks? If you?re bored Val Edwards (Deborah Karr), you swap your fuddy-duddy hubby Dan (Frank SInatra) for his swingin? bachelor best friend Ernie (Dean Martin) ? and watch the spraks fly. Ol? Blue Eyes breezes through this romantic comedy romp at the head of an all-star cast. Along for the laughs are frequent Sinatra co-stars Martin, Cesar Romero, and Tony Bill, plud daughter Nancy Sinatra and Kerr. The fun starts when the Edwards take a second honeymoon in Mexico and fall into the hands of the quickie-divorce/quickie-marriage lawyer Romero. Faster then jumping beans, everybody?s unhitched, rehitched, confused, confounded, and cohabitating. But Dan has the right attitude. ?We had a bad marriage?, he says. ?Let?s have a happy divorce!?This time capsule from a bygone era features an amazing Dean Martin bachelor pad and the delectable sight of Frank Sinatra go-go dancing in a rock club. Such campy pleasures are the main appeal of Marriage on the Rocks, a sitcom-style comedy about marital dissatisfaction and legal confusion. Sinatra?s been married to Deborah Kerr for 19 years, but her boredom with his stick-in-the-mud personality has her leaping to shake things up?especially when a Mexican vacation accidentally divorces the two. How Dino gets himself wedged into this mess is the stuff of labored farce. The two Rat Pack buddies have done this so many times they barely rouse themselves to mix the highballs, with only the presence of Frank?s daughter Nancy, in a supporting role, stirring the fatherly spark. Trini Lopez contributes a song, in the aforementioned nightclub, and Cesar Romero has a buffoonish role as a do-everything Mexican local official. The whole enterprise has the air of hedge-betting about it, and everybody looks as though they?re fulfilling a contractual obligation. ?Robert Horton

Source: http://dating-love-relationships.com/?p=3548

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This Awesome Spiral Apple Slicer Is a Good Excuse for a Resolution

In January everyone makes the same New Year's resolution to be healthier. And not everyone follows through—you can tell because the gyms are emptier. You can at least start on the eating better portion with the Giro apple slicer ($45). More »

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Nigeria president likens nation's unrest to Syria

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) ? Nigeria's president has compared the violence by an Islamist extremist sect in his West African nation to the ongoing civil war in Syria.

President Goodluck Jonathan made the comments Sunday before a church in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Jonathan said the sect known as Boko Haram "is taking over Abuja (and wants) for me and those working in government to run and hide somewhere else."

Jonathan also told worshippers at the church that the violence around the world made him wonder if this is a "way of telling us that the end times are so close."

According to an Associated Press count, Boko Haram has killed more than 780 people this year alone in Nigeria. The killings continue despite soldiers and police flooding the nation's north.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-31-Nigeria-Violence/id-255106e7d3514826a74f752398da6fa3

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Bill to avert fiscal cliff heads to House

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, left, from Nevada, talks with a journalist as the elevator doors close as he departs the Capitol after a vote about the fiscal cliff, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in Washington. The Senate passed legislation early New Year's Day to neutralize a fiscal cliff combination of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that kicked in at midnight. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, left, from Nevada, talks with a journalist as the elevator doors close as he departs the Capitol after a vote about the fiscal cliff, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in Washington. The Senate passed legislation early New Year's Day to neutralize a fiscal cliff combination of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that kicked in at midnight. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., left, walks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell from Kentucky, to the Senate floor for a vote on the fiscal cliff, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in Washington. The Senate passed legislation early New Year's Day to neutralize a fiscal cliff combination of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that kicked in at midnight. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Vice President Joe Biden gives two thumbs up following a Senate Democratic caucus meeting about the fiscal cliff on Capitol Hill on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Reporters pursue Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, as he walks to a closed-door meeting with GOP members of the House as Congress in Washington, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012, as Senate and House leaders rush to assemble a last-ditch agreement to head off the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1, 2013. The House will miss the midnight Monday deadline lawmakers set for voting to avoid the "fiscal cliff." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Legislation to negate a fiscal cliff of across-the-board tax increases and sweeping spending cuts to the Pentagon and other government agencies is headed to the GOP-dominated House after bipartisan, middle-of-the-night approval in the Senate capped a New Year's Eve drama unlike any other in the annals of Congress.

The measure cleared the Senate on an 89-8 vote early Tuesday, hours after Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky sealed a deal.

It would prevent middle-class taxes from going up but would raise rates on higher incomes. It would also block spending cuts for two months, extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, prevent a 27 percent cut in fees for doctors who treat Medicare patients and prevent a spike in milk prices.

The measure ensures that lawmakers will have to revisit difficult budget questions in just a few weeks, as relief from painful spending cuts expires and the government requires an increase in its borrowing cap.

House Speaker John Boehner pointedly refrained from endorsing the agreement, though he's promised a vote on it or a GOP alternative right away. But he was expected to encounter opposition from House conservatives.

"It's three strikes in my book and I'll be voting no on this bill," Rep. Tim Huelskamp told CNN Tuesday morning. Huelskamp says the legislation would impose a hardship on small businesses around the country and falls short of addressing the need for cuts in spending.

The measure is the first significant bipartisan tax increase since 1990, when former President George H.W. Bush violated his "read my lips" promise on taxes. It would raise an additional $620 billion over the coming decade when compared with revenues after tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003, during the Bush administration. But because those policies expired at midnight Monday, the measure is officially scored as a whopping $3.9 trillion tax cut over the next decade.

President Barack Obama praised the agreement after the Senate's vote.

"While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country and the House should pass it without delay," Obama said in a statement. "This agreement will also grow the economy and shrink our deficits in a balanced way ? by investing in our middle class, and by asking the wealthy to pay a little more."

The sweeping Senate vote exceeded expectations ? tea party conservatives like Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., backed the measure ? and would appear to grease enactment of the measure despite lingering questions in the House, where conservative forces sank a recent bid by Boehner to permit tax rates on incomes exceeding $1 million to go back to Clinton-era levels.

"Decisions about whether the House will seek to accept or promptly amend the measure will not be made until House members ? and the American people ? have been able to review the legislation," said a statement by Boehner and other top GOP leaders.

Lawmakers hope to resolve any uncertainty over the fiscal cliff before financial markets reopen Wednesday. It could take lots of Democratic votes to pass the measure and overcome opposition from tea party lawmakers.

Under the Senate deal, taxes would remain steady for the middle class but rise at incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples ? levels higher than President Barack Obama had campaigned for in his successful drive for a second term in office. Some liberal Democrats were disappointed that the White House did not stick to a harder line, while other Democrats sided with Republicans to force the White House to partially retreat on increases in taxes on multi-million-dollar estates.

The measure also allocates $24 billion in spending cuts and new revenues to defer, for two months, some $109 billion worth of automatic spending cuts that were set to slap the Pentagon and domestic programs starting this week. That would allow the White House and lawmakers time to regroup before plunging very quickly into a new round of budget brinkmanship, certain to revolve around Republican calls to rein in the cost of Medicare and other government benefit programs.

Officials also decided at the last minute to use the measure to prevent a $900 pay raise for lawmakers due to take effect this spring.

Even by the dysfunctional standards of government-by-gridlock, the activity at both ends of historic Pennsylvania Avenue was remarkable as the administration and lawmakers spent the final hours of 2012 haggling over long-festering differences.

Republicans said McConnell and Biden had struck an agreement Sunday night but that Democrats pulled back Monday morning. Democrats like Tom Harkin of Iowa said the agreement was too generous to upper-bracket earners. Obama's longstanding position was to push the top tax rate on family income exceeding $250,000 from 35 percent to 39 percent.

"No deal is better than a bad deal. And this look like a very bad deal," said Harkin.

The measure would raise the top tax rate on large estates to 40 percent, with a $5 million exemption on estates inherited from individuals and a $10 million exemption on family estates. At the insistence of Republicans and some Democrats, the exemption levels would be indexed for inflation.

Taxes on capital gains and dividends over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples would be taxed at 20 percent, up from 15 percent.

The bill would also extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed for an additional year at a cost of $30 billion, and would spend $31 billion to prevent a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

Another $64 billion would go to renew tax breaks for businesses and for renewable energy purposes, like tax credits for energy-efficient appliances.

Despite bitter battling over taxes in the campaign, even die-hard conservatives endorsed the measure, arguing that the alternative was to raise taxes on virtually every earner.

"I reluctantly supported it because it sets in stone lower tax rates for roughly 99 percent of American taxpayers," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "With millions of Americans watching Washington with anger, frustration and anxiety that their taxes will skyrocket, this is the best course of action we can take to protect as many people as possible from massive tax hikes."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-01-Fiscal%20Cliff/id-a68d3273eeb9422785f8ea3db60c7b56

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Cynthia Jorge: Freaked Out! In Hiding!

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