Obama Meets With Key Players Before Fiscal Cliff Negotiations

image
Author: Lucas Eaves
Created: 13 Nov, 2012
Updated: 17 Oct, 2022
2 min read
Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Obama Meets With Key Players

After his re-election, President Obama's first order of business is to find a compromise with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to avoid the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that could go into effect on January 1st. In order to prepare for the fiscal cliff negotiations, President Obama will meet with key players in the coming week, including labor unions, and business and civic leaders.

On Tuesday, the administration will welcome labor union leaders, and other prominent members of the progressive political movement, to the White House. President Obama will also be meeting with corporate executives on Wednesday. This will be an occasion for the president to rebuild a relationship with the business community, which vastly favored Mitt Romney in the election. The uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the fiscal cliff negotiations has been influencing investor confidence for the past week.

Some of the executives that will be at the White House on Wednesday are part of Fix-the-Debt, "a non-partisan movement to put America on a better fiscal and economic path," and support efforts to reach a compromise. Fix-the-Debt raised $40 million to urge lawmakers to arrive at a compromise involving spending cuts and revenue increases without endangering America's growth -- an outlook that is similar to the president's plan. Obama will need to convince the executives to persuade Republicans in Congress to concede to some tax increases in return for a reduction of spending on programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Both these meetings confirm that the Obama administration plans to remain firm on its commitment to reduce the national debt, and on its outlook that the wealthiest should participate more in the nation's effort to reduce its debt.

The president is set to meet with the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and of the Senate this coming Friday to commence the negotiations. Both sides agree that the current debt reduction plan, which would cut the deficit by $600 billion, could likely take the country into another recession. Both sides have shown a desire to cooperate, but increasing taxes for the wealthiest remains a highly controversial point of the Obama administration's plan.

The president hopes input from key economic players and groups will lead to fiscal cliff negotiations that result in an agreeable solution for all parties and, most of all, for the American public.

Latest articles

Man voting.
Maine Lawmakers Vote to Protect RCV Counting Process, Which Generates Results in 'One Minute'
On Monday, Maine's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted 3-7 against restoring batch elimination to the ranked choice voting (RCV) system through LD 656 (HP 424), the title of which claims it will save taxpayers money, but the secretary of state says is unnecessary. ...
11 Mar, 2025
-
1 min read
Vote here signs outside a building.
To Avoid Confusion, Should RCV Just Be Called Instant Runoff Elections?
In discussions with an elderly voter in Colorado about Proposition 131, the unsuccessful 2024 ballot measure to create a nonpartisan primary with ranked choice voting (RCV), in the general election, we learned something important. This individual had voted against Proposition 131, casting his mail ballot on the day he received it. A week later, he received a campaign ad mailer that Colorado’s governor and Denver’s mayor had endorsed Proposition 131, which may have influenced his decision....
11 Mar, 2025
-
5 min read
Sky view of the US capitol building.
Democracy Expert Larry Diamond Warns of Growing Culture of SuperPAC Intimidation in Congress
In his new regular column, Diamond on Democracy, democracy scholar Larry Diamond, acknowledges that “[h]aving won the presidency fair and square, Donald Trump has earned the right to propose, and in many cases to implement, radical new policy directions.” ...
11 Mar, 2025
-
3 min read