| Obama Urges Congress To Take Another Swing At a Fiscal Cliff Deal |
| Dec-21-2012 |
| Keywords: obama, boehner, fiscal cliff, |
As lawmakers were heading home for the Christmas holiday, President Obama on Friday urged congressional leaders to take another stab at drafting a bill aimed at solving the fiscal cliff impasse.
Speaking at the White House, the president said no side is going to get everything they want.
"Everybody's got to give a little bit in a sensible way" to prevent the economy from pitching over a recession-threatening fiscal cliff, he said.
Despite months of wrangling between he and speaker Boehner with nothing to show for their efforts, President Obama suggested that a bill could be crafted before the fiscal cliff deadline, now just 10-days away.
After failing to muster enough Republican support for his fiscal cliff back up plan, House Speaker John Boehner he'd done all he could in the House and that it was now up to the president and the Senate to recue the economy from the cliff.
"We didn't have the votes to pass it," Boehner said. "It's not the outcome that I wanted, but that was the will of the House."
He called on Democrats to step up and get serious about spending cuts, noting they control the Senate and White House.
"At some point the United States Senate has to do something," he said. At the same time, Boehner denied that he was giving up on talks with Obama.
Standing by Boehner, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said "we stand ready to continue a dialogue with this president to actually fix the problem."
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, in response, accused Boehner of pursuing "political stunts," and urged the House to approve a Senate plan that would let taxes rise for incomes only above $250,000. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 9:00 PM Email to a friend |
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