Obama Urges Congress to Avoid Fiscal Cliff
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on Congress to meet the January 1 deadline to avert a looming set of tax hikes and spending cuts - the so-called fiscal cliff - that threaten to plunge the U.S. economy back into recession.
Obama, in his weekly Saturday address, said he has been working with Democrats and Republicans on a plan that would cut spending in a responsible way and asks the wealthiest Americans to pay "a little more." But, Obama said some congressional leaders have not allowed the plan to come to a vote.
Senator Roy Blunt from the Midwestern state of Missouri said in the weekly Republican address that the president's proposal to raise taxes on the top two percent of Americans would only fund the government for eight days. Blunt said the next few days will begin to define the president's second term.
The president said Friday he is "modestly optimistic" that a deal can be reached with Congress.
Obama told reporters that Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and Democratic Senator Harry Reid were working toward an 11th-hour bipartisan deal. He said the stopgap measures would focus on preventing automatic tax hikes on the middle class and assuring that unemployment benefits for some two million Americans continue beyond the January 1 cutoff deadline.
Congressional Republican leaders have called the House back into session this Sunday evening. The House had adjourned last week after failing to agree on a deal with the White House. However, the Senate kept working.
President Obama has insisted that raising taxes on wealthy Americans along with some spending cuts is the only practical way to cut the country's huge deficit. Conservative Republicans do not want anyone's taxes to go up. They rejected Boehner's alternative plan to raise taxes only on Americans making at least $1 million per year. The president's offer would increase taxes for those making at least $400,000.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the nation's debt ceiling will reach its $16.4 trillion limit Monday, New Year's Eve. The ceiling is a limit on how much money the government can borrow to avoid defaulting on its debt. Geithner says Treasury officials will take what he calls "extraordinary measures" under the law to avoid default.
Source: Voice of Amearica
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