US Democratic and Republican leaders traded blame as they left for the Christmas holiday amid fading hope of an agreement to avert a year-end fiscal crisis that could lead to stiff tax hikes and drastic Budget cuts.

Let’s agree right now on what we already agree on. Let’s get that done

In the weekly Republican Party radio address on Saturday, House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said that that President Barack Obama’s proposal to solve the crisis by raising taxes “would still leave red ink as far as the eye can see”.

“What the President has offered so far simply won’t do anything to solve our spending problem and begin to address our nation’s crippling debt,” Boehner said.

“Instead, he wants more spending and more tax hikes that will hurt our economy. And he refuses to challenge the members of his party to deal honestly with entitlement reform and the big issues facing our nation. That is why we find ourselves here today.”

Boehner has made an offer to Obama that would raise $1 trillion (€759 billion) in tax revenue – mostly through closing loopholes and ending certain deductions – and another $1 trillion in spending cuts, including in some social programmes like Medicare.

“I told the President on Monday these were my bottom lines,” Boehner said earlier.

The White House has described its own offer as $1.2 trillion in tax revenues and nearly $1 trillion in spending cuts, although Republicans dispute whether all of the austerity measures are real.

On Friday, President Obama seemed frustrated that Republicans were not willing to offer him a compromise after, in his eyes, he made major concessions to his opponents.

“Nobody gets 100 per cent of what they want,” he said.

With just over a week to go before automatic and massive spending cuts and tax increases due to kick in for all Americans on January 1, Obama urged lawmakers to pass a scaled-down tax package to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Obama said he still wanted a comprehensive and large deficit-cutting Bill to put the US economy on the path to long-term prosperity, but in the meantime, he called for a stop-gap Bill to protect middle-class taxpayers.

“There is absolutely no reason, none, not to protect these Americans from a tax hike. At the very least, let’s agree right now on what we already agree on. Let’s get that done.”