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Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the House Republicans’ failure to pass Speaker John Boehner’s tax and federal debt plan.

The New York Times: Boehner Cancels Tax Vote In Face Of G.O.P. Revolt
Speaker John A. Boehner’s effort to pass fallback legislation to avert a fiscal crisis in less than two weeks collapsed Thursday night in an embarrassing defeat after conservative Republicans refused to support legislation that would allow taxes to rise on the most affluent households in the country. … The stunning turn of events in the House left the status of negotiations to head off a combination of automatic tax increases and significant federal spending cuts in disarray with little time before the start of the new year (Weisman, 12/20).

The Wall Street Journal: Boehner’s Budget ‘Plan B’ Collapses
House Speaker John Boehner, facing a rebellion in his party’s conservative ranks, abandoned his own plan to avert tax increases for most Americans Thursday night, throwing Washington’s high-stakes budget negotiations into disarray and bringing the prospect of tumbling over the fiscal cliff into sudden focus. … Mr. Boehner was already under pressure from party conservatives for concessions he had made in earlier talks with Mr. Obama, including a weekend offer to raise tax rates on millionaires and allow a one-year increase in the debt limit, in exchange for Mr. Obama proposing cuts in Medicare and other fast-growing entitlement programs. Administration officials now say they doubt whether Mr. Boehner would have been able to pass that proposal (Hook, Bendavid and Lee, 12/21).

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Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including news about the efforts to reach a deal on curbing the federal deficit.

The New York Times: Obama And Boehner Diverge Sharply On Fiscal Plan
Hopes for a broad deficit-reduction agreement faded on Wednesday as President Obama insisted he had offered Republicans “a fair deal” while Speaker John A. Boehner moved for a House vote as early as Thursday on a scaled-down plan to limit tax increases to yearly incomes of $1 million and up, despite Senate opposition and Mr. Obama’s veto threat (Calmes and Weisman, 12/19).

The Washington Post: ‘Cliff’ Standoff: Boehner Works To Wrangle Votes For ‘Plan B’; Obama Threatens Veto
House GOP leaders scrambled to rally their members Wednesday behind a plan to extend tax cuts on income up to $1 million, defying President Obama’s veto threat and setting up a showdown that could send Washington over the year-end “fiscal cliff.” … If Boehner’s limited proposal were to be enacted, the economy would still take a hit: Jobless benefits would begin to expire for the long-term unemployed; physicians with elderly patients would see a sharp drop in Medicare reimbursements; and $100 billion in across-the-board cuts to federal agencies would begin (Kane and Helderman, 12/19).

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Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the “fiscal cliff” negotiations.

The New York Times: Hospitals Fear They’ll Bear Brunt Of Medicare Cuts
As President Obama and Congress try to thrash out a budget deal, the question is not whether they will squeeze money out of Medicare, but how much and who will bear the brunt of the cuts. … But any significant tinkering with the benefits for older Americans comes with significant political risks, and most Democrats in Congress strenuously oppose raising the age when Medicare coverage begins. With growing pressure to reach an agreement on deficit reduction by the end of the year, some consensus is building around the idea that the largest Medicare savings should come from hospitals and other institutional providers of care (Pear and Abelson, 12/18).

The Wall Street Journal: Cleveland Clinic Diagnoses Health-Care Act
Just over a year from now, the Affordable Care Act is set to unleash enormous change in the health-care sector, and Cleveland Clinic Chief Executive Delos “Toby” Cosgrove is preparing his institution by expanding its reach and striving to make caregivers more cost-conscious. … Dr. Cosgrove has pushed efforts to translate the system’s research work into new commercial opportunities ranging from a social-media site on beauty to a medical-device startup developing artificial-heart technologies. Cleveland Clinic is also striking deals with employers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to send workers to there for complex procedures, moves that lock in patients for high-end surgeries. The new federal provisions—which include cutbacks to Medicare payments and the creation of new health-insurance marketplaces for consumers—will test institutions like Cleveland Clinic (Mathews, 12/18).

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Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about some of the health program specifics involved in offers traded in the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations.

The New York Times: Obama’s New Offer On Fiscal Crisis Could Lead To Deal
The offer is close to a plan proposed by the speaker on Friday, and both sides expressed confidence that they were closing in on a major deficit-reduction plan that could be passed well before January, when more than a half-trillion dollars in automatic tax increases and spending cuts would kick in (Weisman, 12/17).

The Washington Post: Obama, Boehner Move Closer To ‘Cliff’ Deal
Obama laid out a counteroffer that included significant concessions on taxes, reducing the amount of new revenue he is seeking to $1.2 trillion over the next decade and limiting the hike in tax rates to households earning more than $400,000 a year. … Obama also gave ground on a key Republican demand — applying a less-generous measure of inflation across the federal government. … In addition, Obama increased his overall offer on spending cuts. … Meanwhile, the possibility remains that the deal could get even more distasteful for Democrats, particularly if Republicans counter Obama’s request for $1.2 trillion in new taxes with a demand for an additional concession on health care, such raising as the eligibility age for Medicare beneficiaries from 65 to 67 (Montgomery and Kane, 12/17).

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Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including weekend updates regarding the fiscal cliff negotiations as well as news regarding states’ decisions on health exchanges.

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Movement Seen In ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Talks  As Boehner Offers Revenue Boost
In return, Boehner is asking for $1 trillion in spending cuts from government benefit programs like Medicare. Those cuts would defer most of a painful set of across-the-board spending cuts set to slash many domestic programs and the Pentagon budget by 8-9 percent, starting in January (12/17).

Politico: Fiscal Cliff Deal Still Faces Many Hurdles
House Speaker John Boehner jump-started the budget talks by offering to raise tax rates, but major differences on entitlements and revenue could prove difficult to bridge with only two weeks until the fiscal cliff deadline. … But proposed cuts to Medicare are now the key to any fiscal cliff deal. Boehner needs robust changes to the hugely popular seniors health program to sell any kind of tax-rate increase to his conservative-dominated Republican Conference (Sherman and Bresnahan, 12/16).

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