NEW YORK TIMES: House Republican leaders struggled on Tuesday night to rally their colleagues around a backup measure to ease the sting of a looming fiscal crisis by allowing tax rates to rise only on incomes over $1 million.
The plan would leave in place across-the-board spending cuts to military and domestic programs that Republicans have been warning could have dire consequences, especially to national defense…
But a protracted meeting of the House Republican Conference on Tuesday night made it clear that passage of Mr. Boehner’s proposal would be difficult. Representative Howard P. McKeon of California, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was not sure he could support a bill that would allow $500 billion in military cuts over the next 10 years and indicated that other Republicans on his committee shared his concern.… (more)
