Obama to stress need to raise debt limit "without drama"
Both sides dig in on "fiscal cliff," "nothing going on"
WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 5, 2012
President Barack Obama will renew his case for tax hikes on wealthy Americans to avert a year-end fiscal crunch and call for a smooth increase in the nation's borrowing limit in a speech to a business group on Wednesday, a White House official said.
The president is embarked on an aggressive campaign
to pressure congressional Republicans to compromise on steps to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.
He will argue to corporate executives that it would hurt the nation's economy to have another protracted political fight over raising the debt limit, the official said.
"The President will highlight why it would hurt our economy and our nation's businesses if we do not find a solution to avoid another debt ceiling crisis, and will ask the business leaders for their help in supporting an approach that resolves the debt limit without drama or delay," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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The president will renew his insistence that taxes rise on the most affluent Americans in his speech to the business group, the White House official said.
If the administration and lawmaker remain at loggerheads, going over the fiscal cliff is projected to throw the weak economy back into recession.
Obama, re-elected to a second term last month in part on a pledge to raise taxes on the wealthy,
has sought to pressure Congress into yielding on tax increases with a stream of meetings with a wide range of interest groups, including businesses, non-profits, and governors of states.