Fiscal Cliff

Taxes on the wealthy and Republican demands for budget cuts to pay for Democratic spending proposals were separating the two parties as the deadline for avoiding the "fiscal cliff" has drawn to within hours.

The top leaders in both parties on the House and Senate Agriculture committees have agreed to a one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill that expired in October, a move that would head off a possible doubling of milk prices next month.

President Barack Obama tells NBC's Meet The Press GOP leaders have rejected his past attempts to strike a bigger and more comprehensive bargain during Fiscal Cliff negotiations while voicing hope for legislation aimed at containing gun violence passed next year.

Whether negotiated in a rush before the new year or left for early January, the fiscal deal President Barack Obama and Congress cobble together will be far smaller than what they initially envisioned as an alternative to purposefully distasteful tax increases and spending cuts.

Efforts to save the nation from going over a year-end "fiscal cliff" were still in disarray as lawmakers returned to the Capitol to confront the tax-and-spend crisis.

Senate leaders are rushing to assemble a last-ditch agreement to avoid middle-class tax increases and possibly delay steep spending cuts in an urgent attempt to find common ground after weeks of postelection gridlock.

President Barack Obama is urging Congress to reach a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, saying the nation "can't afford a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy."

President Barack Obama says "the hour for immediate action is here" on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

Efforts to save the nation from going over a year-end "fiscal cliff" were in disarray as lawmakers fled the Capitol for their Christmas break. "God only knows" how a deal can be reached now, House Speaker John Boehner declared.

Amid partisan bluster, top members of Congress and President Barack Obama were holding out slim hopes for a limited fiscal deal before the new year. But even as congressional leaders prepared to convene at the White House, there were no signs that legislation palatable to both sides was taking shape.