Making an already head-splittingly difficult deal on the fiscal cliff even harder to resolve is a set of three rules by which the Republicans who run the House play.
These are not official regulations; they're more shibboleths that House GOP leaders have adopted in recent years. And those rules are leaving House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, little room to maneuver as lawmakers try to avoid a set of tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect at the end of the year.
According to President Obama, keeping tax rates unchanged for the bottom 98 percent of taxpayers come Jan. 1 should be simple.
The Senate has already passed a bill freezing all but the top two rates of the Bush-era tax cuts, he told a group of factory workers on Friday. "If we can just get a few House Republicans on board, we can pass the bill in the House, it will land on my desk, and I am ready — I have got a bunch of pens ready — to sign this bill."
But that Senate bill has been stymied by the House GOP leadership's deference to what's known as "the majority of the majority." Under this de facto rule, no bill is brought up for a vote when Republicans control the House unless a majority of their caucus supports it.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/12/02/166268748/the-3-unofficial-gop-rules-that-are-making-a-deficit-deal-even-harder