Advantage Obama. With the threat of a fiscal crisis looming, the majority of voters say they support raising taxes on the rich, a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows.
Sixty-five percent of voters say taxes should rise for Americans making more than $250,000 a year, while 31 percent oppose. The poll also showed that voters are overwhelmingly against cutting Medicaid spending and are slightly against raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. But the GOP has a serious trust issue on the fiscal cliff. Americans feel Obama is acting in “good faith” during the negotiations 56 percent to 38 percent, while 51 percent say congressional Republicans will not act in good faith.
The survey was conducted Nov. 28-Dec 3, and included 1,949 registered voters. - See the poll here
WHITE HOUSE "ABSOLUTELY" READY TO JUMP OFF CLIFF These talks are starting to look a lot like the scene from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” where the heroes have no choice but to leap off a mountainside and then escape to Bolivia.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told CNBC Wednesday that the Obama administration was "absolutely" prepared to send the country off the fiscal cliff if Republicans refuse to agree to raise tax rates on upper income brackets.
"There's no prospect in an agreement that doesn't involve the rates going up on the top 2 percent of the wealthiest," Geithner said. - Read more at CNBC
GOP CONGRESSMEN HAVE BOEHNER’S BACK House Republicans say they are standing behind Speaker John Boehner, after a handful of Republicans and conservative groups blasted the Ohio congressman for his $800 billion in new revenues counteroffer to President Obama earlier this week.
In a private meeting between Boehner and his caucus on Wednesday, members spoke in support of him, and said they would stand behind him as fiscal negotiations heat up, The New York Times reports. - Read more at The New York Times
OBAMA MAKES A HOUSE CALL Be careful what you tweet.
A Northern Virginia family is hosting the president today, after responding to a presidential Twitter request for real-life stories about the burden of a $2,000 tax increase on the middle class via the White House’ Twitter hashtag #my2k - Read more at Reuters
For more news on the approaching fiscal cliff, follow us on Twitter @Fiscalcliffnote
