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WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) — U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Tuesday he would adopt a backup plan to deal with the fiscal crisis looming in January while still hoping to reach a broader agreement with President Barack Obama.
Boehner made the remarks to reporters after a meeting with his Republican caucus to drum up support for his recent proposal to raise taxes on households making more than $1 million a year.
“We still want to reach a balanced deal with the president that avoids the fiscal cliff,” Boehner said. “What we’ve proposed meets the definition of balanced, but the president hasn’t gotten there yet.”
Boehner said the backup plan would extend low income tax rates for households making less than $1 million a year.
“I remain hopeful that we can reach a broader deal with the White House that reduces spending but also increases revenue. I think that would be better for our country,” he noted.
Obama proposed a new fiscal plan on Monday that further reduced the tax increase requirement to $1.2 trillion and called for raising the debt ceiling within two years.
Boehner said the White House’s latest proposal essentially amounts to $1.3 trillion in tax increases and $850 billion in net spending cuts. “I think it’s unbalanced,” he added.
To break the budget impasse, Boehner last week presented Obama with a plan that includes raising taxes on people earning more than $1 million a year while cutting welfare spending. The plan calls for $1 trillion in new taxes, up from his initial proposal of $800 billion in new taxes.
Although differences remain, progress has been made in recent days as both sides have made concessions on long-held positions.
If Congress fails to reach a deal, all Bush-era tax rates will expire at the end of this year, automatically triggering spending cuts that economists warn could tip the U.S. economy into recession.
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