WASHINGTON — Start holding your breath — a fiscal-cliff deal could be ready for a vote by tomorrow.
President Obama and congressional leaders emerged yesterday from last-ditch negotiations at the White House with a grim new determination to seal a deal before the New Year’s Day deadline, when big tax hikes and deep federal spending cuts otherwise will whack America.
“We’ve got to get this done,” Obama declared at a press conference following the 65-minute Oval Office meeting.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sounded an unusual bipartisan tone after the meeting, agreeing to work on a deal in time for a vote tomorrow.
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HEAT’S ON: President Obama speaks at the White House yesterday following his meeting with congressional leaders about a fiscal-cliff deal.
At a minimum, Obama wants a vote on a scaled-down package that keeps Bush-era tax cuts for family incomes up to $250,000, extends unemployment benefits and postpones spending cuts.
The president said he was “modestly optimistic” that one of these deals would get done in time. But he plans to keep pressure on Congress with an appearance tomorrow morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The Reid-McConnell deal could raise the tax-hike threshold to $400,000 to attract more Republican support, as well as extend the current inheritance-tax rate and dozens of business tax breaks that are also set to expire Tuesday.
“We’ll be working hard to see if we can get this done in the next 24 hours,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
Reid told the chamber that whatever they come up with will be “imperfect” because they are dealing with big numbers and complicated issues.
“Some people aren’t going to like it. Some people will like it less, but that’s where we are,” he said.
After the meeting, Obama used the White House bully pulpit to put public pressure on Republican leaders to let a proposal — even one that isn’t bipartisan — go to a vote.
Senate rules empower any member to hamstring legislation and House Republican leaders control what reaches the floor.
“If we don’t see an agreement between the two leaders in the Senate, I expect a bill to go on the floor . . . that makes sure taxes on middle-class families don’t go up,” Obama warned.
He said “ordinary folks” don’t understand why everything is a logjam in DC and lawmakers can’t just get the job done.
“The American people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy,” he said.
Obama, Reid and McConnell were joined at the White House by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
During the talks, Boehner told Obama the House would act on whatever legislation the Senate passes, either approving it or amending it, said a Boehner spokesman
Boehner has been sidelined from the negotiations since House Republicans abandoned his “Plan B” that would have limited the tax increases to millionaires.
Obama also issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees — a move that pumped up the salaries of Biden and members of Congress, The Weekly Standard reported yesterday.
Biden will snag an extra $6,379 each year, bringing his salary to $231,900, while US Senate and House members will make an additional $900.
smiller@nypost.com
Fiscal-cliff deal could be ready for a vote tomorrow
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