奥巴马与共和党沟通财政悬崖

The U.S. President is stepping up efforts to correct the fiscal slide that saw the US economy end up in the doldrums. President Barack Obama visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday, to hold budget talks with Republicans in the House of Representatives.

The visit came after a dinner Obama had hosted for Senate Republicans earlier in the week, and will be followed by two closed-door sessions with House Democrats and Senate Republicans. The President has been hard at work trying to build consensus among lawmakers from both parties to deal comprehensively with the financial problems facing the US. And he is only too aware of the challenge. House Speaker John Boehner puts it this way.

He said, "And I thought that we had a very frank and candid exchange of ideas and, frankly, I think it was productive. We know, however, that there are some very real differences between our two parties, like issues, jobs, balancing the budget and what will we do to get our economy moving again. Republicans want to balance the budget. The president doesn’t. Republicans want to solve our long-term debt problem. The president doesn’t. But, having said that, today was a good start."