With just the weekend left for the White House and members of Congress to reach a deal that would avert the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts known as the ‘fiscal cliff’ that are set to take effect on January 1 2013, President Obama is sending a message of urgency coupled with cautious optimism.
“The hour for immediate action is here. It is now,” Mr. Obama said in the White House briefing room. “The American people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy, not right now. The American people are watching what we do here. Obviously their patience is already thin.” If he does resort to drawing up legislation on his own, Obama has said such a bill would protect “the middle class from an income tax hike, extends the vital lifeline of unemployment insurance to two million Americans looking for a job and lays the ground work for future cooperation on more economic growth a deficit reduction.”
The President has offered the Senate an ultimatum. Either the Senate leaders produce a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff that can pass in both chambers of the Congress or they will face a vote based solely on his own measures. Obama has essentially abandoned negotiations with Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner. “Let us know what you come up with, and we’ll consider it, accept or amend it,” Boehner told the other leaders. The President has now turned his attention to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Senate majority leader Harry Reid. He recently held a meeting with these two leaders, along with Boehner, Nancy Pelosi and Timothy Geithner, and described their discussion as “good and constructive” and said that it left him “modestly optimistic” a deal could be reached.
Senator McConnell also expressed hope that a bill could be concocted that would pass in both the House and the Senate. “We will be working hard to see if we can get this done in the next 24 hours,” he said after the meeting.
