obama, gop leaders lay down markers on budget deal

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEFICIT_FIGHT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-08-03-06-56

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Taking little time to celebrate, President Barack Obama is setting out to leverage his re-election into legislative success in an upcoming showdown with congressional Republicans over taxes, deficits and the impending "fiscal cliff." House Speaker John Boehner says Republicans are willing to consider some form of higher tax revenue as part of the solution - but only "under the right conditions."

All sides are setting out opening arguments for the negotiations to come.

Even before returning to Washington from his hometown of Chicago, Obama was on the phone Wednesday with the four top leaders of the House and Senate - Boehner included - to talk about the lame-duck Congress that convenes just one week after Election Day.

Without a budget deal to head off the fiscal showdown, the nation faces a combination of expiring Bush-era tax cuts and steep across-the-board spending cuts that could total $800 billion next year. Economists have warned that could tip the nation back into recession.

[vi5]

1. So is it o.k. now?

I voted for Obama. I donated to him. I got out the vote for him and other dems. I made calls. He won. We got more and better Dems in the senate and picked up some seats in the house. The election is over.

So am I allowed now to say that I have no confidence that this is going to end well? And by well I mean with Dems not caving and buckling lilke they always do, gutting social programs, not raising taxes on the wealthy (probably in fact lowering them) and then trying to spin it as a victory.

[newfie11]

2. I am wondering the same here

Time will tell.