UPDATED 12:08 PM EST, November 16, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama urged the leaders of Washington's divided government on Friday to join him in "tough compromises" to keep the economy from plummeting and taxes from rising for millions of Americans in the new year.
"I think we're all aware that we have some urgent business to do," Obama said at the White House with the nation's top Republican, House Speaker John Boehner, at his side. Sitting to the president's other side was the Senate's leader, Democrat Harry Reid, as negotiations over the "fiscal cliff" began in earnest.
