Obama Says There Will Be No Deal on Fiscal Cliff Without Take Hikes to the Rich

Obama Says Republican Fiscal Cliff Offer Doesn’t Go Far Enough (SF Gate)

President Barack Obama said in a Bloomberg Television interview that a Republican offer on resolving the so-called fiscal cliff doesn’t go far enough and won’t raise the revenue needed to shrink the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade.

Obama, in his first television interview since winning re- election, said, “We have the potential of getting a deal done.”

The president said he’s willing to make further cuts in entitlements and realizes he won’t get “100 percent” of what he wants. Still, he insisted that Republicans accept higher tax rates for top earners if the U.S. is to avoid automatic spending cuts and tax increases at the start of 2013.

“We’re going to have to have higher rates for the wealthiest,” Obama said today. “It’s just a matter of math.”
The full interview will be broadcast at 12:30 p.m. Washington Time.

Obama, 51, made his remarks a day after House Speaker John Boehner proposed $2.2 trillion in spending cuts and new revenue. The plan doesn’t include higher tax rates for top earners.

The two sides remain far apart with about four weeks left before more than $600 billion in tax increases and federal spending cuts -- known as the fiscal cliff -- start taking effect. The Congressional Budget Office has warned that might pitch the U.S. economy into a recession.