Fiscal framework emerging

[truebluefan]

Politico's Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen report that "top officials" involved in negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff and grand bargain are saying "the countours of a deal" are beginning to emerge. VandeHei and Allen say these anonymous insiders are telling them that there are three big elements to the deal:

• $1.2 trillion in tax hikes—halfway between the $1.6 trillion sought by the president and the $800 billion that "Republicans say they could stomach."
  
• $1.2 trillion in spending cuts to replace the sequester's automatic cut
  
• At least $400 billion in entitlement cuts, primarily to Medicare—including means testing and raising the retirement age starting in 10 to 20 years. (The report doesn't say whether these would be part of the $1.2 trillion in spending cuts.)

Broadly speaking, it isn't surprising that a fiscal deal would revolve around revenue and spending. If it didn't, then it wouldn't be a fiscal deal. And while most of the article appears to be the result of background conversations, the few detailed quotes VandeHei and Allen were able to report seem to undercut the notion that specific elements of the framework have been settled.

For example, based on the following quote from a Democratic official, it's hard to imagine an issue like raising the Medicare retirement age has been settled:

A top Democratic official said talks have stalled on this question since Obama and congressional leaders had their friendly looking post-election session at the White House. “Republicans want the president to own the whole offer upfront, on both the entitlement and the revenue side, and that’s not going to happen because the president is not going to negotiate with himself,” the official said. “There’s a standoff, and the staff hasn’t gotten anywhere. Rob Nabors [the White House negotiator], has been saying: ‘This is what we want on revenues on the down payment. What’s you guys’ ask on the entitlement side?’ And they keep looking back at us and saying: ‘We want you to come up with that and pitch us.’ That’s not going to happen.”

Read more http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/29/1165660/-Politico-Fiscal-framework-emerging