US President Barack Obama hosted John Boehner, speaker of the opposition-led House of Representatives, for a meeting at the White House over the so-called fiscal cliff, the severe austerity measures that are to take effect in January.
Sunday's meeting was the first one between the two leaders without
other congressional leaders since July 2011, The Washington Post
reported.
The combined federal budget cuts and tax increases are projected
to take a bite of more than 600 billion dollars out of the economy in
2013 alone and could throw the United States back into recession.
Across-the-board income tax increases account for most of the
economic hit.
Spokesmen for Obama and Boehner offered no details of the talks
except to issue mutual statements that "the lines of communication
remain open," the Post said.
Obama has urged Congress, where his left-leaning Democrats control
the Senate but the conservative Republican Party holds the House
majority, to pass legislation freezing income tax rates for the
bottom 98 per cent of earners. He has vowed to block any measure that
prevents higher rates for households earning more than 250,000 a
year.
Republicans have argued that higher rates in any income bracket
would be damaging in a still-weak economy and have countered with
offers to reduce tax deductions, which disproportionately benefit the
wealthy, to raise similar revenues.
