Senate Majority Leader Harry just doesn’t understand what’s inside Republican Speaker John Boehner’s skull.
“I don’t understand his brain,” the Nevada Democrat said Thursday when asked about the divide between Boehner and himself over the looming fiscal cliff deal. “You should ask him.”
It came the same day Boehner said he was disappointed that the Obama administration did not lay out a detailed plan about spending cuts.
“Despite the claims the president supports a balanced approach, Democrats have yet to get serious about real spending cuts,” the Ohio Republican said. “And secondly, no substantive progress has been made in the talks between the white house and the House over the last two weeks.”
On Friday, he acknowledged the fiscal cliff talks had hit a “stalmate.”
Dems argue they have clearly made their case: that the Bush tax expire for the richest Americans.
“We aren’t going to negotiate with us,” Reid said. “We made a proposal through the president of the United States. That proposal says we should revert back to the same tax plan that we had when Clinton was president, protect folks making less than $250,000 a year, have the richest pay a little bit extra.”
The fiscal cliff, of course, refers to a package of tax increase and spending cuts that will go into effect in January unless Congress passes a deal.
The Democrats, including President Obama, say the richest Americans need to pay more in taxes, Republican House Speaker John Boehner has said such tax increases would be “unacceptable.”
And in other GOP reaction to the deal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly was so not amused with the House’s fiscal-cliff proposal that he burst out laughing.
Let the dealmaking begin…
Tune into Hardball tonight at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. EST. We’ll have msnbc political analysts Joy Reid of the Grio.com and David Corn of Mother Jones to weigh in on the latest on the fiscal cliff.
