Obama: 'The Pressure's on Congress'

By: Hillary Crosley | Posted: December 30, 2012 at 11:16 AM

NBC

During his first Meet the Press appearance since 2009, President Obama told NBC's David Gregory that Republicans in Congress are the stumbling block in the path toward resolving the fiscal cliff. Monday is the deadline for the POTUS and Congress to reach an agreement.

"They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected," Obama said. "That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme."

With a little more than one day remaining before the nation faces automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that could impact an already-wobbling American economy, the president implied that there has been little progress in recent days to justify hopes of a last-minute deal to prevent going over the fiscal cliff at year's end.

"I was modestly optimistic yesterday, but we don't yet see an agreement," he said in the interview, taped on Saturday at the White House. "And now the pressure's on Congress to produce."

Read more at NBC News.

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