The two sides were close to agreeing to raise taxes on households earning around $400,000 or $500,000 a year - higher than Obama's preferred threshold of $250,000 - several senators told reporters.
No deal tonight... Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just announced that there will no more votes tonight, putting off any possibility of a fiscal cliff deal until the Senate reconvenes at 11 a.m. Monday.
Reid offered little more in the way of details, but said that negotiations with Senate Republican leaders are ongoing.
"There's still significant distance between the two sides but negotiations continue," Reid said. "We'll have further announcements [Monday] perhaps...I certainly hope so." [left][/left]
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell talked deep into Sunday night, but New Year's Eve dawned with the edge of the "fiscal cliff" that much closer and no certain resolution in sight.
The so-called cliff starts just after the new year, when across-the-board cuts mandated by Congress start to take effect and the Bush-era tax cuts expire. Also involved are other tax measures that would largely hit the middle class, and emergency unemployment insurance, which just expired for some 2 million people.
Biden and McConnell began talking after the GOP Senate caucus leader and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) got stuck in negotiations Sunday.
