Fresh off his re-election, a politically fortified President Obama summoned the top four congressional leaders to the White House Friday for the first of what could be many rounds of talks for a deal to avert fiscal calamity.
The meeting was part of the opening moves to keep the nation from sailing over the so-called fiscal cliff — those across-the-board tax hikes and deep spending cuts set to kick in at year's end.
In welcoming the quartet of lawmakers, Obama struck a conciliatory note.
"Our challenge is to make sure that we are able to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground, make some tough compromises, build some consensus to do the people's business," he said.
But any deal reached to prevent the fiscal plunge may prove a hard sell on Capitol Hill.
Revenue's 'On The Table'
The president had already made clear at his news conference Wednesday that he has one bottom line as this high-stakes bargaining begins.
"What I have told leaders privately as well as publicly is that we cannot afford to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy," he said.
Obama took that same stance two years ago, but ultimately relented. This time, backed by a renewed mandate and polls that support his position, he says that won't happen.
And House Speaker John Boehner, who scotched a revenue-raising deal with the president last year, emerged from Friday's meeting on a very different note.
"To show our seriousness, we've put revenue on the table, as long as it's accompanied by significant spending cuts," he said.
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