Tax hikes looming with no "middle ground."

The fiscal cliff is approaching and Republican hopes to cut Democratic excessive spending continues to appear unattainable.  Meanwhile, the White House (unsurprisingly) rejects House Majority Leader John Boehner's further pleas to find some sort of common ground.  

Fox News:

Boehner called for taxes to rise only on households making more than $1 million. His plan also called for entitlement cuts and a tax reform debate next year. 

The feisty exchange came as both sides crept toward a possible middle ground in private talks. But underscoring the differences that remain, the White House resisted Boehner's bid to craft a "Plan B" just in case those talks fail to yield a compromise before a Jan. 1 deadline -- that's when taxes are set to rise on everyone, followed by a wave of spending cuts. 

Boehner's office fired back saying that the White House's rejection, "defies common sense."

Furthermore, Boehner and his House Republicans are obviously attempting to create a bi-partisan agreement with the President in hopes of preventing tax increases across the board.  Yet, the familiar and persistent stonewalling from the White House may suggest that coming to terms with GOP lawmakers to advert the fiscal cliff is not the agenda.

As former DNC chairman and Presidential candidate Howard Dean puts it:

"Let's just go over the fiscal cliff," he said Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "Everybody's going to bite the bullet. The Republicans are going to hate the taxes."

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck accuses the President as, "moving the goal posts," and "threatening every American family with higher taxes" with the current rejection of "plan-B."

However, if the Democrats ultimately want a total increase in taxes (and blame Republicans with its failures) why not continue to play this game with the GOP?

Boehner and his crew must not participate in any further cat and mouse games with Democrats who selfishly gloat amongst each other with no legitimate intentions to cut spending.  Either way it turns out, the Republicans will be blamed.     

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