-House Speaker Says He Had ‘Pretty Frank’ Chat W/Obama Tuesday
-Rep. Cantor: House Will Work ‘Right Up To’ Xmas Eve If Necessary
-Senate Majority Leader Reid: ‘There Hasn’t Been A Lot of Progress’

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Speaker John Boehner Wednesday said the exchange
of new fiscal cliff offers and a “pretty frank” telephone conversation between
he and President Obama have not narrowed the differences between Republicans and
Obama on the fiscal cliff.

“We’ve got some pretty serious differences,” Boehner said at a briefing
with his House Republican leadership team.

Boehner said the fiscal cliff offers made by Obama have been “mainly” tax
increases and fail to meet the GOP “standards” of getting control of debt and
cutting budget deficits.

“We brought a balanced approach,” Boehner said of the GOP’s fiscal cliff
proposals.

Boehner said that he and Obama had a “deliberate” phone call Tuesday that
reviewed the status of their talks.

“We spoke openly and honestly,” Boehner said.

He repeated that he believes the White House is “slow walking” the fiscal
cliff talks in hopes of getting stronger leverage as the fiscal cliff deadlines
near.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blasted the White House for offering
tactical proposals rather than plans that solve the nation’s fiscal problems.

“Let’s stop playing games,” he said, adding that Republicans seek a
“balanced solution.”

Cantor said the House will stay in session “right up to Christmas Eve” if
necessary to resolve the fiscal cliff impasse.

Speaking on the Senate floor just before the House Republican leadership
briefing, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, offered a very
different view of the fiscal cliff talks.

He said that Republicans were trying to get Obama to commit to specific
spending cuts while they offered only general statements on supporting
additional revenues.

“The President is not going to fall for that again,” Reid said.

Reid agreed with Boehner that the fiscal cliff talks remain stalemated.

“There hasn’t been a lot of progress,” Reid said.

–MNI Washington Bureau; tel: +1 202-371-2121; email: jshaw@mni-news.com

[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MC$$$$,MFU$$$,MGU$$$]