Boehner: White House risks fiscal cliff stalemate

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner says the White House is so resistant to cutting spending that it is risking pushing the country off the “fiscal cliff.”

In remarks he prepared to deliver to reporters on Thursday, the Ohio Republican says President Barack Obama has not been serious about controlling spending, which Republicans say is the source of government’s budget deficit problems. Boehner says Obama wants far more in tax increases than on spending reductions, and says the president’s refusal to control spending is why talks between the two men have failed to reach an agreement so far.

Wide-ranging tax increases and spending cuts will begin to take effect in January — the so-called fiscal cliff — unless Obama and congressional Republicans work out a deficit-cutting agreement to avert them.