Obama seeks short term deal on fiscal cliff

With any further progress on fiscal cliff stalled following House Speaker John Boehner’s Plan B that was opposed by both parties, President Barack Obama said that he still believes the fiscal cliff could be averted if both sides agree on a short term solution.

Obama urged his Republican foes to enjoy the Christmas holidays to the fullest but return to work ready to accept a short term plan to save the economy and help the middle class.

"In the next few days I've asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for two million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction," he said in a statement to reporters late Friday afternoon. "That's an achievable goal."

Obama noted that both sides agree that the tax rates should not be increased on 98 percent of the Americans, due to the automatically triggered measure once the cliff reaches in less than 10 days. He said that while governing is the responsibility of both parties, neither one is responsible to avert the tax hike on the middle class.

“Call me a hopeless optimist, but I actually still think we can get it done,” the president said during the White House briefing. “This is something within our capacity to solve. It doesn’t take that much work. We just have to do the right thing.”

Obama said that he is still ready to work on a comprehensive plan with Congress and hopes that spending some quality time with their families during the holidays will help everyone gain some perspective.

Republicans said they hope Obama will finally get serious over the crisis faced by the nation. Boehner’s spokesman Brendan Buck told reporters in an email that the Speaker of the House “will return to Washington following the holiday, ready to find a solution that can pass both houses of Congress.”

The President said that laws can only be passed from the support of both Democrats and Congress therefore it’s not practical to think that anyone would get 100 percent out of every decision made. At one point or another, both parties need to make a compromise to make sure the result of their decisions end up in something good for the country.