Gang of 8 plots secret retreat

October 3, 2012

POLITICO

John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will crisscross the country during the next month offering different visions for how to fix the country’s fiscal mess.

But in Washington, the senators in the Gang of Six — plus two newbies — will have a secret retreat next week hosted by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to start cobbling together a plan to avoid the looming fiscal cliff.

For this round of talks, the bipartisan group has added Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former member of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) leadership team, and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who has grown close to Obama as he tries to capture Colorado this election season.

Senate insiders confirmed the upcoming session, although the group will not disclose its location.

“This group continues to meet and work toward a bipartisan solution,” Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said.

Other Gang of Six members include Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

The group came together in the summer of 2011 to try to hammer out a deal to solve the debt ceiling crisis but failed to reach an agreement in the end.

Yet it’s jumped into the latest debate over the fiscal cliff — the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and a dramatic cut to federal spending, including for the Pentagon — to see try to see if the bipartisan fever catches widely.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), McConnell and other top senators have encouraged the talks to continue — largely because they have nothing to lose. These bipartisan groups typically don’t have much real power — in fact, last time, they were blamed for scuttling a deal between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) after they proposed higher revenue targets than agreed to by the principals.

Even through their track record is poor, such gangs do have appeal in Washington: They’re bipartisan, and seeing political opposites lock arms in genuine negotiations looks refreshing to both the media and the American public. These secret meetings — like the one Warner is hosting — play to official Washington’s obsession with quiet negotiations between politically serious figures as the way to unravel the most pressing political problems.

But the dynamic, which is sure to distract many in town, ignores a fundamental truth: The House of Representatives is where the action will be after the election.

House Republicans have already passed a bill that extends all the Bush tax rates for a year and moved on legislation to blunt massive cuts to Pentagon and defense spending. If past is precedent, Boehner will hold that up as the party’s negotiating position until the rest of the players are ready to come to the table.

Plus, Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Republican Conference has been hesitant to put enough revenue on the table to satisfy Democrats and refused to endorse any increase in taxes.

“The House has outlined a common-sense path forward by passing legislation that replaces the sequester and stops the looming tax hike for one year while Congress works to enact comprehensive tax and entitlement reform. Tax hikes are a nonstarter, as the speaker has made clear,” Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said in a statement to POLITICO.

With Reid, Obama and Senate Democrats strongly opposed to extending the Bush tax rates for anyone making more than $200,000 annually and families making over $250,000 annually, the lines are set for a huge political clash. Insiders on both sides of the aisle are bracing for a rocky lame-duck session no matter who wins on Election Day.

If polls stay steady, Boehner will be at the helm of a House filled with Republicans disappointed that Obama will have another four years in the White House.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/81940.html#ixzz28FA28E5p

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