Boehner Offers To Trade Tax Hike for Entitlement Cuts

Are those real cuts or government "cuts"?

House Speaker John Boehner offered to raise income tax rates on households earning more than $1 million a year in exchange for containing the cost of federal entitlement programs, as part of a deal with President Barack Obama to cut the federal deficit, according to two people familiar with the talks.

The offer, made in a Dec. 14 phone call between the two leaders, marks the first time Boehner has entertained an increase in income tax rates in his talks with Obama to avoid more than $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and across- the-board tax increases set to start next month.