Obama meets Boehner on fiscal cliff deal

US: US President Barack Obama held fresh talks with top Republican lawmaker John Boehner at the White House on Monday, in their latest effort to reach a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Obama and Boehner, the Speaker of the House, met for about 45 minutes -- the latest in a series of meetings between the two protagonists in the negotiations as they seek to forge a compromise aimed at preventing tax hikes and federal spending cuts from kicking in beginning January 1.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also joined the talks.

“The president believes that the parameters of a potential agreement are clear,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. That hardly ensures a deal, but The Washington Post reported Monday that signs have emerged that the two sides had narrowed their differences and could be close to shaking hands on an agreement which would see $1 trillion in new tax revenues and $1 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade.

Carney would not characterize the discussions other to describe them as “frank and direct and deliberate,” but he also said Obama had essentially rejected the latest offer by Boehner. “We have not seen a proposal besides the president's that achieves the balance that the president insists be part of a deal, because we can't have a situation where deficit reduction is borne unduly or primarily by the middle class or by seniors,” Carney said.

AFP