Politics

Missouri Congresswoman-elect Ann Wagner says she would not support any plan to increase tax rates to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.”

Failure to reach a deal before January First would result in immediate tax increases and across the board spending cuts.

It's the Thanksgiving Politically Speaking podcast, and we're thankful for all of our listeners.

St. Louis Public Radio's Chris McDaniel joins the St. Louis Beacon's Jo Mannies and Jason Rosenbaum to talk about a few political issues.

On the table for this week: GOP dissent on health exchanges, the recent ruling on public employee's right to collective bargain and the new bipartisan debt group in Missouri. And, of course, some talk about Governor Jay Nixon's deer "harvesting" and Gobbles the Turkey.

The lame duck Congress is now in session and while historically known as a time of inaction, the large task of avoiding the “fiscal cliff” is ever-present.

The fiscal cliff is a combination of tax increases and spending cuts which would take effect on January 1, 2013, primarily due to the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts.

Host Don Marsh talked with Rob Koenig, the St. Louis Beacon’s Washington D.C. correspondent.

A week after the conservative losses at the polls, about 20 tea partiers gathered at a restaurant in North St. Louis County to listen to a few lecturers talk about a few ideas for the future: the flat tax and the fair tax. And yes, to commiserate about the recent past.

“If we can’t even elect a Republican president with Barack Obama as his opponent, how in God's name do we propose to eliminate the tax code?” Bill Hennessy, who helped found the St. Louis Tea Party, asked. He was visibly frustrated.