Obama in last-minute 'fiscal cliff' plea
Source: Agencies |
December 31, 2012, Monday
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Financial markets would be affected adversely if US lawmakers fail to agree on a "fiscal cliff" deal before tomorrow, President Barack Obama said yesterday, while urging Congress to act quickly to extend tax cuts for middle-class Americans.
Lawmakers are seeking a last-minute deal that would set aside US$600 billion in tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts that are set to start within days. If Congress does not make that happen, the first bill brought up in the new year would be to reduce taxes for middle-income families, Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Now I think that over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up. That would hurt our economy badly," Obama said.
"We can get that done. Democrats and Republicans both say they don't want taxes to go up on middle-class families. That's something we all agree on.
"If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the 'fiscal cliff.' It avoids the worst outcomes."
Low income tax rates first put in place under Republican former President George W. Bush are due to expire at the end of the day today.
Obama said that failing to reach a deal would have a negative impact on financial markets.
"If people start seeing that on January 1 this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them ... then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets," he said.
Obama said the most likely scenarios to end the back-and-forth between both sides were, either the congressional leaders would come up with a deal, or Democrats in the Senate would bring a bill to the floor seeking an up-or-down vote to extend tax cuts for middle income earners.
"And if all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4 and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," he said.
Lawmakers are seeking a last-minute deal that would set aside US$600 billion in tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts that are set to start within days. If Congress does not make that happen, the first bill brought up in the new year would be to reduce taxes for middle-income families, Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Now I think that over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up. That would hurt our economy badly," Obama said.
"We can get that done. Democrats and Republicans both say they don't want taxes to go up on middle-class families. That's something we all agree on.
"If we can get that done, that takes a big bite out of the 'fiscal cliff.' It avoids the worst outcomes."
Low income tax rates first put in place under Republican former President George W. Bush are due to expire at the end of the day today.
Obama said that failing to reach a deal would have a negative impact on financial markets.
"If people start seeing that on January 1 this problem still hasn't been solved, that we haven't seen the kind of deficit reduction that we could have had had the Republicans been willing to take the deal that I gave them ... then obviously that's going to have an adverse reaction in the markets," he said.
Obama said the most likely scenarios to end the back-and-forth between both sides were, either the congressional leaders would come up with a deal, or Democrats in the Senate would bring a bill to the floor seeking an up-or-down vote to extend tax cuts for middle income earners.
"And if all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it, so that taxes on middle class families do in fact go up on January 1, then we'll come back with a new Congress on January 4 and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle class families," he said.
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