Obama’s interview with David Gregory was an unusual Sunday-show foray. | Pete Souza Obama targets GOP inaction on cliff

President Barack Obama used a rare appearance on a Sunday talk show one day before the nation hits the fiscal cliff to pin the blame on Republicans who “have had trouble saying yes.”

With the prospects of a bipartisan agreement uncertain, Obama used the high-profile setting of NBC’s “Meet the Press” to make his closing argument in the debate.


On a day of drama and uncertainty in Washington, he said he’s negotiated in good faith, moved more than halfway to reach a grand bargain and angered Democrats with his concessions. But he said Republicans still refuse to strike a deal with him and hike rates on the richest taxpayers.

“They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they’re behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected,” Obama said. “That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme.”

In response House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said it was the president who “has never been able to get to ‘yes.’”

“Americans elected President Obama to lead, not cast blame,” Boehner said in a statement. “The president’s comments today are ironic, as a recurring theme of our negotiations was his unwillingness to agree to anything that would require him to stand up to his own party.”

Obama’s interview was an unusual foray into the world of Sunday shows — the last time he appeared on “Meet the Press” was at the height of the health care debate — and showed how keenly aware the White House is of the potential fallout if the nation goes over the cliff and the importance of keeping voters on its side.

The president even loosely quoted Abraham Lincoln, who once said that government rests on popular opinion. Obama made the point while talking about gun control, but it could just as easily apply to his strategy on the fiscal cliff.

“One of the things that you learn, having now been in this office for four years, is the old adage of Abraham Lincoln’s,” he said. “That with public opinion, there’s nothing you can’t do, and without public opinion, there’s very little you can get done in this town.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted that Obama would will get a “political victory” on the fiscal cliff — if not immediately, then later.

“Hats off to the president,” Graham said on “Fox News Sunday.” “He stood his ground. He’s going to get tax rate increases.”

Graham also said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told him on Saturday night that an attempt to pause the sequester will not be part of any deal.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he spoke Sunday morning with senators working on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, and they have yet to reach an agreement.

“We’re trying to line up a Rubik’s Cube right now, and we’re not there yet,” Barrasso said. “We’re meeting later today. This is going to continue, I think, on until tomorrow.”

( Also on POLITICO: The logic of House GOP intransigence)

If Senate leaders fail to strike a compromise that can pass Congress, the White House will gamble on its backup strategy — that enough Republican lawmakers will consider it political suicide to prevent a vote on Obama’s plan to extend tax cuts on income up to $250,000. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to call up the bill Monday, only hours before the deadline.

“Republicans will have to decide if they’re going to block it, which will mean that middle-class taxes do go up,” Obama said. “I don’t think they would want to do that politically, but they may end up doing it.”

Obama occupies the stronger position. Polls show that most voters won’t blame him. If tax rates rise on all Americans, whatever Congress does in the new year will be considered a tax cut, opening a path for agreement with Republicans. That means Obama is likely to get what he wants on tax rates regardless of what happens before the deadline.

( Also on POLITICO: Silver lining: Delay in hitting debt limit)

Obama signaled in the interview that he would wait until the next Congress convenes later in the week to reopen the debate. Much would be left unresolved: unemployment benefits for 2 million Americans, rate hikes on investment income and inherited estates, business tax credits, across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester, a rate cut for doctors who serve Medicare beneficiaries and the alternative minimum tax that hits middle-class families.

“If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it so that taxes on middle-class families do in fact go up on January 1st, then we’ll come back with a new Congress on January 4th, and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle-class families,” Obama said. “And I don’t think the average person’s going to say, ‘Gosh, you know, that’s a really partisan agenda on the part of either the president or Democrats in Congress.’ I think people will say, ‘That makes sense, because that’s what the economy needs right now.’”

As long as the matter is resolved in the next few days or even the next week or two, most taxpayers may not know the difference.

But gridlock still comes at a significant cost for the president.

Even if Congress manages to approve a narrow deal on Monday, Obama’s inability to reach a grand bargain that addresses taxes, spending and the debt limit means the economy may continue to limp along while he contends with a series of new fiscal cliffs over the next few months.

Obama already has said he won’t let Republicans use the need to extend the country’s borrowing limit by February as leverage for more budget cuts. But the GOP will still try — on both the debt limit and the expiration of government funding in March.

So rather than focus on his second term priorities, such as immigration reform and gun control, Obama will be fighting the same battles that bogged down the past two years of his presidency. Obama has a narrow window to force action on immigration, a notoriously divisive issue, before memories of the 2012 election fade.

The same holds true with guns, which jumped to the top tier of the president’s to-do list following the slaying of 20 young children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

“I’d like to get it done in the first year,” Obama said in the interview. “I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden’s task force is putting together as we speak. And so, this is not something that I will be putting off.”

But most of Obama’s appearance on the Sunday show was about pre-spinning failure on the fiscal cliff. He’s been doing it for weeks, well aware of how he and his advisers failed to wage a vigorous enough public campaign during the 2011 debt limit showdown and suffered for it.

His appearance in the White House briefing room Friday was as much about laying blame as laying out his case for a bipartisan solution. If Washington pushes American taxpayers over the cliff, Obama wants them to think he had little to do with it.

He chastised members of Congress like they were his children, complaining that they always wait to do things at the last minute on everything and that they’re trying everybody’s patience.

Obama delivered a similar scolding message Sunday.

“So one way or another, we’ll get through this,” he said. “Do I wish that things were more orderly in Washington and rational, and people listened to the best arguments and compromised and operated in a more thoughtful and organized fashion? Absolutely. But when you look at history, that’s been the exception rather than the norm.”