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President Obama Meets with the Leaders of Congress

Summary: 
President Obama hosts Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at the White House for talks on the economy.
President Obama and Vice President Biden meet with the bipartisan, bicameral leadership of Congress (November 16, 2012)

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with the bipartisan, bicameral leadership of Congress to discuss the fiscal cliff and a balanced approach to the debt limit and deficit reduction, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Nov. 16, 2012. Participants included: House Speaker John Boehner at left, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at right, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Chief of Staff Jack Lew, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama today hosted the Democratic and Republican leaders from both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate at the White House for talks on the economy -- and how to prevent a tax increase on the middle class.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell met with the President for more than an hour and emerged optimistic about the potential for agreement.

"Our challenge is to make sure that we are able to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground, make some tough compromises, build some consensus to do the people’s business," President Obama said. "And what folks are looking for -- and I think all of us agree on this -- is action. They want to see that we are focused on them, not focused on our politics here in Washington."

Before the meeting, the President also took a moment to mark Speaker Boehner's birthday.

"We didn't make him a cake because we didn't know how many candles we'd need," President Obama told reporters.

"Yeah, right," Speaker Boehner replied to laughter as the two men shook hands.

Watch the full video here: