WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the two sides are still apart as they race against a midnight deadline for resolving their differences over the “fiscal cliff.”
The Nevada Democrat says negotiations are continuing. But he cautioned that bargainers are running out of time and still have differences over some issues, though he did not say what still divides them.
Reid’s remarks came Monday morning after the two sides narrowed their differences during an evening of bargaining between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden.
Without agreement by midnight, wide-ranging tax increases and budget-wide spending cuts — the so-called fiscal cliff — will begin taking effect. Though the impact of those changes would be felt gradually, economists have warned that they could cause recession if left intact.
