Talking tough while hinting at compromise

WASHINGTON – Fiscal cliff talks at a partisan standoff, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner swapped barbed political charges on Wednesday yet carefully left room for further negotiations on an elusive deal to head off year-end tax increases and spending cuts that threaten the national economy.

Republicans should “peel off the war paint” and take the deal he’s offering, Obama said sharply at the White House. He buttressed his case by noting he had won re-election with a call for higher taxes on the wealthy, then added pointedly that the nation aches for conciliation, not a contest of ideologies, after last week’s mass murder at a Connecticut elementary school.

But he drew a quick retort from Boehner when the White House threatened to veto a fallback bill drafted by House Republicans that would prevent tax increases for all but million-dollar earners. The president will bear responsibility for “the largest tax increase in history” if he makes good on that threat, the Ohio Republican declared.

In fact, it’s unlikely the legislation will get that far, as divided government careens into the final few days of a struggle that affects the pocketbooks of millions and blends lasting policy differences with deep political mistrust.

Boehner expressed confidence the Republicans’ narrow, so-called Plan B bill would pass the House today despite opposition from some conservative, anti-tax dissidents. The leadership worked to shore up the measure’s chances late in the day by setting a vote on a companion bill to replace across-the-board cuts in the Pentagon and some domestic programs with targeted reductions elsewhere in the budget, an attempt to satisfy defense-minded lawmakers.

With Christmas approaching, Republicans also said they were hopeful the tax measure could quickly form the basis for a final bipartisan “fiscal cliff” compromise once it arrives in the Senate.

Democrats, in the majority in the Senate, gave no indication of their plans.

On paper, the two sides are relatively close to an agreement on major issues, each having offered concessions in an intensive round of talks that began late last week.

But political considerations are substantial, particularly for Republicans.

After two decades of resolutely opposing any tax increases, Boehner is seeking votes from fellow Republicans for legislation that tacitly lets rates rise on million-dollar income tax filers. The measure would raise revenue by slightly more than $300 billion over a decade than if all of the Bush-era tax cuts remained in effect.

Boehner won a letter of cramped support from anti-tax activist Grover Norquist during the day. Norquist’s organization, Americans For Tax Reform, issued a statement saying it will not consider a vote for the bill a violation of a no-tax-increase pledge that many Republicans have signed.

But another conservative group came to an opposing conclusion. “Allowing a tax increase to hit a certain segment of Americans and small businesses is not a solution; it is a political ploy,” the Heritage Foundation said in a statement.

Democrats had their own issues, but so far, they have remained largely submerged as Republicans struggle.

Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Jim McDermott of Washington, both veteran liberals, announced their opposition to a provision that Obama is backing to slow the growth of cost-of-living benefits for Social Security and other benefit programs.

At the White House, Obama repeated that he is ready to agree to spending cuts that may cause distress among some fellow Democrats, but he saved his sharpest words for Republicans.

“Goodness, if this past week has done anything, it should just give us some perspective,” he said in a reference to the shootings of school children in Connecticut.

Yet even as he implored Republicans to “take the deal,” he made it clear he’s open to more bargaining.