In debt talks’ new phase, blame game overshadows fiscal blueprint [View All]

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Source: Wash. Post

Negotiations over the national debt entered a troubling new phase Wednesday on Capitol Hill as lawmakers appeared to spend more time trading blame for the impasse than in talks aimed at developing a blueprint to reduce borrowing.

With a Thanksgiving deadline getting closer, Democrats on the bipartisan “supercommittee” revealed details of a plan they offered to Republicans late last week that would have cut spending by nearly $900 billion over the next decade in exchange for just $400 billion in new taxes.

The proposal represents an apparent shift from earlier Democratic debt-reduction proposals, which demanded as much as $1.3 trillion in new taxes through 2021. It also appeared to mark a big step toward the latest Republican position, which called for about $300 billion in new taxes.

But Republicans said the offer was a ruse that included at least $800 billion in new taxes from the expiration of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts in January.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-debt-talks-new-phase-blame-game-overshadows-fiscal-blueprint/2011/11/16/gIQAjB8iSN_singlePage.html