First sign of progress toward avoiding tax hike

By Ted Barrett, Kate Bolduan and Tom Cohen, CNN
updated 9:30 AM EST, Thu December 15, 2011

Washington (CNN) -- With hours to go until the midnight Friday deadline to keep the government funded, Capitol Hill was waiting for word Thursday morning about a meeting between GOP and Democratic leaders aimed at resolving the latest impasse.

The closed-door Wednesday night meeting among House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which lasted about an hour, was the first sign of progress after days of stalemate.

There was no immediate sign that a deal was near, but the meeting suggested the two sides might finally work directly toward resolving the dispute.

Failure to pass the appropriations bill by midnight Friday would mean the government lacks funding authority and a partial shutdown would ensue. The White House and Democrats are calling for a short-term spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, to extend government funding past Friday and allow more time for negotiations.

If no resolution is reached, the payroll tax rate on working Americans could also jump at the end of the month.

Explain it to me: Payroll tax cuts A Democratic source told CNN that Senate Democrats plan to drop a provision to tax income over $1 million and will offer a new proposal instead.

Republicans oppose the so-called "millionaires tax," and have blocked previous proposals by Senate Democrats to prevent a payroll tax hike.

No further details were immediately available on the new proposal, first reported by CNN, which emerged from a White House meeting between Senate Democratic leaders and President Barack Obama on Wednesday afternoon, the source said.

Obama for months has argued that the wealthy should pay what he terms their fair share of taxes.

A senior administration official told CNN the White House would not have any specific reaction to reports that Obama and Senate Democratic leaders were abandoning the surtax.

This gets you to the bottom of the video clips on the left: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/15/politi...ss_igoogle_cnn

HAHA - Liberals are going to love this!!!! Obama the Marxist fails again. Aren't you glad for REAL Americans now?