On the recordDecember 20, 2012
The Republican majority needs to do what Americans do every day in labor negotiations and real estate offices and other places around this country, and that's to negotiate rather than simply restate their position. The President asked for higher tax rates on income above $250,000, and he compromised and moved it up to $400,000. The President started with a spending cut number that was $500 billion or $600 billion, and he moved it up to $1.2 trillion. And he included within that a very controversial proposal dealing with Social Security increases. The President has compromised. The Republicans once again are simply regurgitating their same old position, a tax provision that has a $50,000-a-year tax cut for millionaires and a tax increase for 25 million working families, including servicemembers and their children, and a proposal that cuts jobs on transportation projects, daycare centers, and nursing homes across the country. We should stop wasting our time on one-sided bills, follow the President's lead, lift our sights higher, and negotiate. That is the way out of this conundrum. And I would urge my friends on the majority side to stop pontificating and start negotiating.
