With the approaching fiscal cliff less than 100 hours away, things are getting awfully personal on Capitol Hill.
Which means that the chances of reaching a deal to avoid expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts are approaching slim to none.
And if they’re allowed to expire, it would trigger the largest tax hike in US history — meaning lots of pain and suffering, especially in already tax-weary New York.
“My savings, my investments, my retirement contribution will be hit very hard,” 26-year-old Mary Kaltenberg told The Post.
“My [tax] increase, almost $4,000, is what I pay on FreshDirect for the year,” said 67-year-old John Gebhard. “I just buy the basics. It’s my food for the year.”
Never mind all that.
President Obama and legislative leaders prefer to play high-stakes political chicken — with neither side willing to blink.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday blasted House Speaker John Boehner as a “dictator” for refusing to allow a vote on a Senate measure that raises taxes on families making over $250,000 a year.
This, even as Reid insisted that his Democratic-majority body’s measure is the only one he’s willing to consider.
In other words, no meaningful give-and-take. In fact, no serious negotiations at all.
Yet, as Boehner noted, House Republicans have already passed their own measure that would avert fiscal calamity by keeping all the Bush tax cuts and shifting mandated spending cuts from the military to domestic programs.
“The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff,” said the speaker. “Senate Democrats have not.”
Democrats, however, refuse to consider the House bill — or any measure that seriously addresses spending cuts.
So much for dictatorships.
Underscoring the general non-communication, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was called Wednesday by Obama — “the first Democrat to do so on the fiscal cliff since Thanksgiving.
“This is a conversation we should have had months ago,” he said, adding that new talks are planned for today.
Meanwhile, the country seethes.
“Regardless of your political position,” 55-year-old George Hoban told The Post, “everyone would agree that something has to be done. People in Congress need to compromise.”
Yes — but when?
Tick tock, tick tock.