Democrats see middle ground for revenue target
Democrats waging a take-no-prisoners approach to the fiscal cliff are showing signs of flexibility on one key issue: just how much money the government should rake in.
Its a marked difference from the hard line the party is taking in favor of raising tax rates on top-wage earners and against calls for major entitlement changes.
But several Democratic lawmakers say they arent necessarily wedded to the multitrillion-dollar revenue target President Barack Obama is setting which Republicans dismiss as unrealistic as long as they get the prize of tax rate increases on the wealthy and ward off big rewrites of Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.
...
Much of the year-end tax debate has thus far focused on how far Republicans are willing to move toward tax hikes. And House Democrats like almost everyone else on Capitol Hill remain on the outside of talks between House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Obama. But their importance could skyrocket if the speaker and the president are able to negotiate a year-end budget package. Democrats in the chamber mostly relegated to afterthoughts after losing the majority in 2010 will almost certainly be called on to move the package across the finish line to offset GOP defections.
http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/democrats-see-middle-ground-for-revenue-target-85017.html
Basically, it seems like at least Democrats in the House (who are largely irrelevant right now, but that could change) are indicating that they would go lower on the tax rates if Republicans back off entitlements. Not likely to happen, but I could live with that.