Obama says GOP should 'take the deal'

Amid signs that negotiations are stalled, President Barack Obama said Wednesday that it is ?puzzling? that House Speaker John Boehner hasn?t accepted his latest fiscal cliff offer, saying what separates them is a few hundred billion dollars in spending cuts.

Obama, speaking in the White House briefing room, said he is ?eager to get something done? to avert tax increases and automatic spending cuts before Christmas.

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Obama ?won?t negotiate around debt ceiling?

The president urged Republicans to ?take the deal.?

(Also on POLITICO: Cliff talks turn into public posturing)

?We have put forward real cuts in spending that are hard to do ? in every category,? Obama said. ?And by any measure, any traditional calculation, by measures Republicans themselves have used in the past, this would be as large a piece of deficit reduction as we?ve seen in the last 20 years.?

Obama, at turns conciliatory and confrontational, invoked the shooting in Connecticut and Hurricane Sandy to argue that ?the country deserves folks to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good.?

?If this past week has done anything, it should just give us some perspective,? Obama said. ?If you just pull back from the immediate, you know, political battles, if you kind of peel off the partisan war paint, then we should be able to get something done.?

(Also on POLITICO: ?Plan B? stalls in Senate)

Obama rejected the Republican argument that he hasn?t offered enough spending cuts, saying it?s ?not going to fly? because he is proposing nearly $1 trillion in reductions ? although the GOP has taken issue with the White House?s calculation.

?Frankly, up until a couple of days ago, if you looked at it, the Republicans in the House and Speaker Boehner, I think, were in a position to say ?We?ve gotten a fair deal,?? Obama said.

The president also seemed to signal some leeway on revenues. He declined to rule out raising the income threshold above his last offer of $400,000. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) wants it to remain at $1 million.

Obama drew a hard line against negotiating around the debt limit, saying he would not allow Republicans to use it as a leverage point to gain more spending cuts.

?I will not negotiate around the debt ceiling,? Obama said. ?We?re not going to play the same game that we saw happen in 2011, which was hugely destructive.?

Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/white-house-boehner-strategy-risks-cliff-dive-85303.html

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