Obama Says He’s Confident of Reaching Fiscal Cliff Deal
Regardless of how confident you should start sending your congressional delegation cards, letters, emails, and petitions now.
President Barack Obama expressed confidence that he and Congress would reach an agreement that will avoid the automatic spending cuts and tax increases that are scheduled to occur at the end of the year.
‘I am confident we can get our fiscal situation dealt with,’ Obama said at a news conference in Bangkok, where he began a three-nation trip that will include the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Myanmar.
Before Obama left for Asia, he began on a new round of deficit-reduction talks with top Republicans and Democrats in a bid to avoid the combination of $607 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts that threatens to throw the country into a recession next year.
He arrived in Asia today on his first foreign trip since re-election, underscoring the region’s importance to U.S. growth. The Nov. 17-20 trip is built around a summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where Obama will meet with leaders from China, Japan, Russia, India and other Asia-Pacific countries.
Speaking in a region where some nations are still moving toward allowing greater political and economic freedom, Obama said the squabbling in Washington is an outgrowth of one of the key strengths of the democratic system because it ensures that all sides are heard.