Deficit Talks Deadlocked, Despite GOP Revenue Offer

Republicans on the deficit super committee finally budged on revenues this week, in what Dick Durbin yesterday hailed as “a breakthrough” in the talks. But Democrats swiftly rejected the GOP’s offer for $350 billion in new revenue as insufficient, leaving the committee about where it was—with less than two weeks left before its Thanksgiving deadline, the Washington Post reports. Republicans criticized Democrats for walking away from the table, while Democrats say the sides were never close.

The Republican plan lowers tax rates, but boosts revenue by limiting itemized deductions for things like mortgage interest and charitable contributions, and cutting some corporate tax breaks, including the much-maligned corporate jet one. It’s nowhere close to the $1 trillion in new revenues Democrats want, but it “represents quite a stretch for some of the conservatives in our caucus,” says John Cornyn. “But we recognize that this is a good-faith way to allow the Democrats to say they got additional revenue.” (More budget deficit stories.)