Today 2012 ends and in the United States Democrats and Republicans have not yet found an agreement to avoid the "fiscal cliff". Without an understanding, from January the US will fall into the "fiscal cliff": a terrible mix of spending cuts and tax increases that will be triggered automatically, dragging the 2013 US GDP into the red. Yesterday, President Barack Obama accused the Republicans of "intransigence", holding them responsible for the crisis. Today negotiations will resume in the Senate to seek the long-awaited agreement.
The president's opponents do not accept the idea that "the tax burden on the richest Americans should increase a little," Obama explained interviewed by the NBC television station. "The protection of better-off taxpayers seems to be the only thing I agree on."
The Republicans "say that their priority is to deal seriously with the deficit - Obama said again -, but the way they behave seems to demonstrate that their only priority is to ensure that the tax exemptions of the richest are maintained".
Harry Reid, head of the Democratic majority in the Senate, underlined that “there is still an important gap between the two sides, but negotiations continue. There is still time to reach an agreement and we intend to continue negotiating. We will meet again at 11 (17 in Italy, ed). We will hopefully have more announcements to make."
Reid leads talks with Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to try to get a last-minute deal acceptable to the Democratic-majority Senate and the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. There is time until midnight todayi (6 o'clock tomorrow in Italy).
