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Obama back to deal with fiscal cliff
Source: Agencies |
December 28, 2012, Friday
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US President Barack Obama was cutting short his holiday and returning to Washington yesterday as no deal appeared in sight to avoid the year-end "fiscal cliff" of higher taxes and deep spending cuts that could spin the still-fragile back into a recession. The treasury secretary warned that the government would hit its borrowing limit on Monday, the final day of the year.
Obama made phone calls to congressional leaders late on Wednesday before leaving his Hawaiian vacation for Washington, the White House said yesterday.
The US appears to be headed over the fiscal cliff, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said. He criticized his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner, for not calling House members back to work: "They are not here." He said Boehner cared more about keeping his position when the new Congress comes in next Thursday.
Consumer confidence fell to its lowest monthly level since August, largely on concerns over the fiscal cliff, the Conference Board reported yesterday.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress that he would take "extraordinary measures as authorized by law" to postpone a government default. But he said uncertainty over the outcome of the fiscal cliff negotiations made it difficult to determine how much time those measures would buy.
Congress was not expected to return until today. In recent days, Obama's aides have been consulting with Reid's office, but Republicans have not been part of the discussions, suggesting that much still needs to be done before Congress can pass a deal, even a small one, by Monday.
At stake are tax cuts that expire on Monday and revert to the higher rates in place during the administration of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
Obama made phone calls to congressional leaders late on Wednesday before leaving his Hawaiian vacation for Washington, the White House said yesterday.
The US appears to be headed over the fiscal cliff, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said. He criticized his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner, for not calling House members back to work: "They are not here." He said Boehner cared more about keeping his position when the new Congress comes in next Thursday.
Consumer confidence fell to its lowest monthly level since August, largely on concerns over the fiscal cliff, the Conference Board reported yesterday.
On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress that he would take "extraordinary measures as authorized by law" to postpone a government default. But he said uncertainty over the outcome of the fiscal cliff negotiations made it difficult to determine how much time those measures would buy.
Congress was not expected to return until today. In recent days, Obama's aides have been consulting with Reid's office, but Republicans have not been part of the discussions, suggesting that much still needs to be done before Congress can pass a deal, even a small one, by Monday.
At stake are tax cuts that expire on Monday and revert to the higher rates in place during the administration of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
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