3PM

The hope is they can hammer out a deal.

An aide to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the Kentucky lawmaker “is eager to hear from the president.”

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement that said the Ohio Republican would attend and “continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act.”

While there was no guarantee of a compromise, Republicans and Democrats said privately elements of any agreement would likely include an extension of middle class tax cuts with increased rates at upper incomes as well as cancellation of the scheduled spending cuts. An extension of expiring unemployment benefits, a reprieve for doctors who face a cut in Medicare payments and possibly a short-term measure to prevent dairy prices from soaring could also become part of a year-end bill, they said.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.