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Political Brinksmanship on the “Fiscal Cliff”; Will Congress Make a Deal?

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Congress engages in political brinksmanship on making a deal as the fiscal cliff looms within hours of the New Year

On the eve of the New Year, America braces itself for the possibility that taxes will increase overnight and unemployment insurance will stop for nearly two million Americans and their families.

Will the Stock Markets react negatively today as the country watches and waits for a Congressional deal to prevent going over the “fiscal cliff”?

Even this reporter cannot disagree with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) who said, speaking from the Senate floor that “something has gone terribly wrong when the biggest threat to the American economy at is the United States Congress.”

Vice-President Joseph Biden was on the telephone with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McDonnell  in discssions until midnight last night and their respective staffs talked late into the night.

The main issues of the impasse revolve around how to use the possible increase of revenue, generated by higher taxes on those who earn $250,000 or more.  Democrats want to use additional revenue to maintain  or freeze spending for discretionary programs including unemployment, food stamps, student loans etc. But Republicans want to use increased revenue to pay down the U.S. debt and make cuts to discretionary spending now.

Earlier on Saturday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced from the Senate floor that negotiations were at an impasse and that the Democratic and Republicans caucuses remained far apart.  Reid asked that the Senate adjourn and resume business at 11 a.m. today.

Reid said negotiations would continue, but are not currently ongoing within between members of the Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s staff reached out to Vice-President Joe Biden when Reid announced Saturday he was removing the Social Security inflation calculation cuts from the negotiations.

One of the biggest concerns by Democrats about  the failure to make a deal before Jan.1, is the immediate cessation of unemployment benefits currently sustaining about two million unemployed Americans.  Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have expressed grave concerns about the termination of these benefits that are keeping people afloat and expressed their further concerns about a potential blow to consumer confidence, just as the economy has stabilized and continues to grow, up from 1.3 percent in the second quarter, to 3.1 percent GDP growth in the 3rd quarter. 

On Sunday, President Barack Obama made a rare appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss the Congressional fiscal cliff negotiations.  He continues to insist that all Americans earning up to $250,000 should  get a tax cut and everyone else, should pay more.  Republicans apparently were very unhappy with President Obama’s tone during the Meet the Press interview, who laid blame for Congressional obstruction at House Speaker John Boehner and McConnell for failure to compromise.

Speaker John Boehner has been sidelined to these negotiations for failure to gain support from the Republican caucus for any measure proposed to date.  Congressional watchers believe that Boehner’s speakership would be irreparably damaged if he were to allow a vote on a bill that would be carried by a majority of Democratic votes.

The “fiscal cliff” refers to the 2011 Budget Control Act that included $500 billion in tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to take effect after Jan.1, 2013.

Most economic experts believe that the US economy will not take an immediate hit from a failure to pass a deal by January 1st, but could damage consumer confidence in the short-term. Other believe, on both sides of the aisle, that “going over the fiscal cliff” is not a bad tactic, could achieve a better deal for Democrats and will drive swift action to “cut taxes” by Republicans after the new Congress is formed on Jan. 3rd.

Image of the U.S. one dollar bill is courtesy of Freepik

316568_10150308241032334_651712333_8318983_213496096_nTanya L. Domi is the Deputy Editor of the New Civil Rights Movement blog.  She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and teaches human rights in East Central Europe and former Yugoslavia.  Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi was a nationally recognized LGBT civil rights activist who worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force during the campaign to lift the military ban in the early 1990s. Domi has also worked internationally in a dozen countries on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights and gender issues.  She is chair of the board of directors for GetEQUAL.  Domi is currently writing a book about the emerging LGBT human rights movement in the Western Balkans.

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Judge Rebukes Trump Admin for Defying SNAP Payment Deadline

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A federal judge chastised the Trump administration for defying his order issued last week to fully distribute SNAP payments by Monday, or at least partially by Wednesday. The administration had said it would release 65 percent of the funds but offered no timeline for doing so.

Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island sharply rebuked the Trump administration “for what he said was defying his order to make full SNAP payments by Nov. 5,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported on Thursday. “He has ordered USDA to make the *full* payment to states by tomorrow.”

“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said, according to Cheney.

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The judge alleged that “Trump and his allies have admitted to withholding SNAP benefits for ‘political reasons’ rather than to preserve child nutrition programs, which the judge said was a pretext,” Cheney also reported.

Judge McConnell cited a Truth Social post President Trump made in which he vowed to hold up the SNAP funds. The President wrote that food stamp benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The White House later walked back the President’s remarks, claiming he was referring to any future shutdowns.

The judge “said Trump’s Truth Social post was essentially an admission of his ‘intent to defy the court order,'” according to Cheney.

“The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP,” McConnell said, according to the Associated Press. “They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial Snap payments and failed to consider the harms individual who rely on those benefits would suffer.”

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‘Make Lots of Trump Babies’: Dr. Oz Highlights Midterm Goals

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shared a few of his goals for next year’s midterms with reporters.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Oz promoted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

“We’ve dropped the [price of] infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies — I’m hoping by the midterms,” he told reporters, as HuffPost reported.

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Praising President Donald Trump’s plan to lower prices on popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, Oz said, “America will have to get fit in order to rightsize the health care system.”

Dr. Oz has talked about making “Trump babies” before.

“Now I know what you’re all thinking, and you’re probably right, that there are going to be a lot of Trump babies,” Oz said in October at a White House event focused on making in vitro drugs more accessible. “I think that’s probably a good thing.”

“But it turns out the fundamental, creative force in society is about making babies,” he continued. “It’s about creating. And this country, the one that President Trump is leading so beautifully has been a country of abundance, not scarcity.”

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‘Clown Show’: House Dem Leader Slams ‘Divorced From Reality’ Senate GOP Head

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November 6, 2025

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As the federal government shutdown enters its 38th day with no end in sight, the Speaker of the House and the House Democratic Minority Leader appear united — on one aspect only: blaming the Senate.

Amid reports that a few Senate Democrats might agree to vote to reopen the government if Republicans guarantee a date-certain vote on restoring the Affordable Care Act subsidies, Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to attempt to scuttle that potential bargain on Thursday.

Asked if he would assure that the House would vote on restoring the Obamacare subsidy funding, which would be the basis of a Senate deal, Johnson refused.

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“No, because we did our job, and I’m not part of the negotiation,” the Speaker told reporters on Thursday. “The House did its job on September 19th” when it passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has effectively declared that legislation is dead, unless he can change the end date.

“I’m not promising anybody anything,” Johnson continued. “I’m gonna let this process play out.”

Over on the Democratic side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted the Senate Majority Leader.

“Not a partisan thing, a patriotic thing: We have to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” Jeffries declared.

“And John Thune is divorced from reality,” he charged.

“I mean, it’s a clown show over in the Senate,” Jeffries continued.

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“Fourteen, fifteen times, you bring the same partisan Republican spending bill?” he said, referring to the House-passed continuing resolution that Leader Thune has been putting before the Senate several times a week.

“Expecting a different result? That’s the classic definition of legislative insanity. Doing the same thing, over and over and over again,” he said while blasting Thune, saying he “has no ability to actually negotiate in good faith.”

Weeks ago, Jeffries told MSNBC, “what I’m saying is that we need an ironclad path forward that decisively addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”

“In terms of the Affordable Care Act, you know, this is a group of people, Republicans, who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care more than 70 different times since 2010. They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer. We need a real path forward to address the crisis that Republicans have visited upon the American people in terms of healthcare, the cost of living, and affordability.”

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