Starbucks on Wednesday made public a letter from CEO Howard Schultz to the company’s employees, unveiling an effort to publicly push lawmakers to strike a deal on the looming “fiscal cliff.”

In the letter, Schultz asked baristas at Washington, D.C.-area Starbucks to write “Come Together” on coffee cups for the rest of the week.

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“In the spirit of the Holiday season and the Starbucks tradition of bringing people together, we have a unique opportunity to unite and take action on an incredibly important topic,” Schultz wrote. “Rather than be bystanders, we have an opportunity — and I believe a responsibility — to use our company’s scale for good by sending a respectful and optimistic message to our elected officials to come together and reach common ground on this important issue.”



A Gallup poll released Wednesday showed growing concern among the public that lawmakers would fail to reach an agreement to avoid January’s set of tax increases and automatic spending cuts that economists say could bring a new recession.



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President Obama is cutting short his vacation in Hawaii to return to Washington on Wednesday to resume negotiations. The House and Senate are also slated to be in session on Thursday.

Schultz has been outspoken about the consequences of the fiscal cliff. In an interview with CNN earlier this month, he said that Washington’s failure to address the situation was already hurting the economy, and that going over the cliff “would have a seismic effect on the rest of the world.”