Congressional leaders will head to the White House on Friday to meet with President Obama in what Politico says “may be the final chance to restart negotiations just a few days before the nation plunges over the fiscal cliff.”

New York Times: “Lawmakers and aides from both parties cautioned that the burst of activity could be more about making sure the other side gets the blame than any real search for a resolution before the Jan. 1 deadline.”

Wall Street Journal: “It is still possible the two sides can reach a deal, especially with the leaders meeting Friday. Any resolution would be a scaled-back version of the package Mr. Obama and congressional leaders had anticipated passing after the November election… The 11th-hour strategy carries enormous risk because it leaves no margin for error in Congress’s balky legislative machinery.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said the House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday evening, just less than 30 hours before the United States reaches the fiscal cliff, NBC News reports.

Lawmakers were told that the House would come to order at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday in hopes of averting the end-of-year combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that constitute the fiscal cliff.

Said Boehner: “We’ve done our job, it’s up to the Senate to act. We’ll see if they do anything.”

“It looks like that’s where we’re headed.”

— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), quoted by CNBC, on the fiscal cliff.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds Americans blame Republicans in Congress more than congressional Democrats or President Obama for the current “fiscal cliff” crisis, as the deadline approaches for action to avert big tax increases and spending cuts.

Key findings: 27% blamed Republicans in Congress, 16% blamed Obama and 6% pointed to Democrats in Congress. The largest percentage — 31% — blamed “all of the above.”

“If the president and Sen. Reid and John Boehner all said to me today… let’s put Simpson-Bowles on the floor, I guarantee you, given the urgency, we could cobble together something to solve this problem. But nobody’s willing to pull the trigger. Everybody wants to play the blame game. And this blame game’s about to put us over the edge.”

— Retiring Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), in an interview on CNN.

“With historic tax increases set to hit virtually every American in five days, President Obama and members of the Senate are headed back to Washington on Thursday to take one last shot at a deal to protect taxpayers and the gathering economic recovery,” the Washington Post reports.

“If anything, hope for success appeared to have dimmed over the Christmas holiday. The Republican-controlled House last week abdicated responsibility for resolving the crisis, leaving all eyes on the Senate. But senior aides in both parties said Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have not met or even spoken since leaving town for the weekend.”

Mark Halperin: “At this point, even if Mitch McConnell wants to lead a last-second deal, it might not be possible. But his backing is certainly a necessary condition.”

Politico reports that “nearly all the major players” in the fiscal cliff negotiations believe a deal is “virtually impossible before the New Year.”

“Unlike the bank bailout in 2008, the tax deal in 2010 and the debt ceiling in 2011, the Senate almost certainly won’t swoop in and help sidestep a potential economic calamity… With the country teetering on this fiscal cliff of deep spending cuts and sharp tax hikes, the philosophical differences, the shortened timetable and the political dynamics appear to be insurmountable hurdles for a bipartisan deal by New Year’s Day.”

The New York Times notes that with just days left “before the fiscal punch lands, both sides are exhibiting
little sense of urgency, and new public statements Wednesday appeared to
be designed more to ensure the other side is blamed rather than to
foster progress toward a deal.”