Multiple reports: Emerging debt deal would enact spending cuts now with promise for tax reform later

(Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Multiple reports (HuffPost, TPM, POLITICO and New York Times), say that President Obama and John Boehner are closing in on a deal to raise the debt limit that would immediately enact sweeping spending cuts in exchange for a promise to reform the tax code at a future date.

POLITICO reports the spending cuts would total $3 trillion. TPM adds:

A Congressional aide briefed on ongoing negotiations between House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama says the two principals may be nearing a "grand bargain" on to raise the debt limit which would contain large, set-in-stone spending cuts but only the possibility of future revenue increases.

"All cuts," the aide said. "Maybe revenues some time in the future."

In other words, this deal would represent a complete cave?and an epic one at that.

The one sliver of hope is that both the White House and John Boehner are denying the reports, but unless you believe each of these publications somehow independently invented the same general story, it seems pretty clear that something is afoot?and it's something bad. According to the HuffPost story, it seems as though the big issue at this point is trying to find some way to include the potential for revenue into the deal without actually raising revenue, an effort that appears to be veering into tragic absurdity:

The White House has laid out an alternative suggestion during past negotiations: Lawmakers would be required to find $800 billion in additional revenues over the next decade. If they could not find an agreement, then the Bush-era tax cuts for the high-end earners will expire.

Uh, those tax cuts are already going to expire. Plus, earlier today John Boehner ruled out supporting their expiration. Given that he won't even accept that minimal scenario, it's impossible to see how there could possibly be any sort of big deal that is balanced in any significant way. And if these reports are accurate, there won't be.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/MdtUFvHv3Vs/-Multiple-reports:-Emerging-debt-deal-would-enact-spending-cuts-now-with-promise-for-tax-reform-later

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