President Obama “plans to try to ratchet up public pressure on Congress to accept his ideas for resolving the looming tax-and-spending crisis with a series of events at the White House and on the road this week,” the New York Times reports.
First Read: “While Team Obama is beginning to increase its activity as we get closer to the fiscal cliff deadline at the end of the year — we learned yesterday that Obama chatted over the phone with House Speaker John Boehner on Saturday (along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) — the reality is that everyone is going to run in circles over the next couple of weeks. Why? Because Washington typically needs the pressure of a deadline to get things done. There’s more of a chance for getting a deal in mid to late December. That’s just the nature of how this process works. And by the way, it’s what the negotiators themselves know. All of them have privately expressed an interest to hit the fast forward button on the DVR and simply get to the end game.”
The Economist: “The door is open to a deal; the hard part is walking through it.”
