As the fiscal cliff looms, what's your New Year's message to Washington?
Washington (CNN) -- If a broader deal on the "fiscal cliff" cannot be reached soon, the Senate should vote on legislation to make sure middle-class taxes are not raised and that 2 million people don't lose unemployment benefits, President Barack Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview broadcast Sunday.
"Over the next 48 hours, my hope is that people recognize, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up that would hurt our economy badly," Obama said. "We can get that done."
The president's appearance on a political talk show is his first in three years, and clearly appears timed to put pressure on lawmakers to get a deal done or take a vote. The interview was recorded on Saturday.
With tax rates set to increase across the board on Tuesday, the Senate's top Democrat and Republican were working Sunday to forge a last-minute compromise to stop the U.S. economy from going over a fiscal cliff that would not only trigger higher taxes but sweeping spending cuts.
Aides for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said no details on the negotiations were expected until at least early afternoon, when the Senate convenes a session at 1 p.m. ET.
At stake in the negotiations, according to a number of economists, is the fate of a still fragile U.S. economy that could be pushed back into a recession by the broad tax hikes and automatic $110 billion cuts to domestic and military spending spelled out by the fiscal cliff legislation.
Obama again placed blame on Republicans for the failure to reach a compromise, saying they "have had trouble saying yes to a number of repeated offers."
He said if they could agree to a deal that keeps middle-class tax rates as they are, "that takes a big bite out of the fiscal cliff, it avoids the worst outcomes."
Then there can be some more tough negotiations on the other aspects of debt reduction, he said.
On Capitol Hill, "We've been trading paper all day, and the talks continue into the evening," McConnell told reporters Saturday night. "We've been in discussions all day. We'll let you know as soon as we have some news to make."
