Washington Post (12/18/12) Lori Montgomery; Paul Kane

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) have moved close to agreement on a plan to avert the fiscal cliff, but they have yet to clear several critical hurdles, including winning the support of wary House Republicans. Obama made a proposal on Monday that would raise revenues by $1.2 trillion over the next decade but keep in place the Bush-era tax rates for any household with earnings below $400,000. The offer is close to a plan proposed by the speaker on Friday, and both sides expressed confidence that they were closing in on a major deficit-reduction plan that could be passed well before January.

Obama is reportedly no longer seeking a permanent mechanism to increase the U.S. debt limit, but would settle for a two-year increase in America’s borrowing authority. In a further concession to Republicans, Obama agreed to apply a less generous measure of inflation to government calculation, which would result in lower benefits in the Social Security pension system over time, a person familiar with the talks says. Of the $800 billion in straight cuts proposed by the president, half would come from federal health care programs; $200 billion from other so-called mandatory programs, like farm price supports, not subject to Congress’s annual spending bills; $100 billion from military spending; and $100 billion from domestic programs under Congress’s annual discretion.

USA Today (12/18/12) Paul Davidson

Jobless benefits for some 2.1 million Americans will end Dec. 29 unless Congress and the Obama administration can reach an agreement on the fiscal cliff. A further 930,000 people will lose their jobless benefits in early 2013, when their 26 weeks of state benefits end, according to the National Employment Law Project. Although some experts believe the benefits will be extended, this may not happen until sometime in January, leaving many unemployed people potentially facing weeks of financial hardship.