Little progress in U.S."fiscal cliff" talks Reuters - 1 hr ago HATFIELD, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - With barely a month left before the"fiscal cliff," Republicans and Democrats remained far apart on Friday in talksto avoid the across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that threaten to throw the country back into recession. While President Barack Obama visited a Pennsylvania toy factory to muster public support for tax hikes on the rich, portraying Republicans as scrooges at Christmas time, his primary adversary in negotiations,Republican House Speaker John Boehner, continued todescribe the situation as astalemate. The argument will resume on Sunday when Boehner, along with Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, and others, take to weekly political talk shows and pick up further steam nextweek with a possible confrontation in the House of Representatives between Democrats and Republicans over the timing of a vote on tax hikes. Lawmakers are nervously eyeing the markets as the deadline approaches, with gyrations likely to intensifypressure to bring the drama to a close. The markets, in turn watching the politicians, fellas Boehner spoke, but recovered afterward. It was a repeat of the pattern earlier in the weekwhen the speaker offered a similarly gloomy assessment. The latest round of high-stakes gamesmanshipfocuses on whether to extend the temporary tax cuts that originated under former President George W. Bush beyond their December 31 expiration date for all taxpayers, as Republicans want, or just for those with incomes under $250,000, as Obamaand his fellow Democrats want. After five days of increasingly confrontational exchanges,the work week drew to a close with an announcement by Democrats of a long-shot effort next week to force an early tax-hike vote in the Republican-controlled U.S. House to break the deadlock. MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she would undertake the rarelysuccessful effort unless Boehner agreed by Tuesday to bring a bill to the floor allowing taxes onthe wealthy to rise, something Boehner is highly unlikely to do until he is ready. "The clock is ticking," Pelosi said at a news conference. "The year is ending. It's really importantwith tax legislation for it tohappen now. We're calling upon the Republican leadership in the House to bring this legislation to thefloor next w

Little progress in U.S."fiscal cliff" talks Reuters - 1 hr ago HATFIELD, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - With barely a month left before the"fiscal cliff," Republicans and Democrats remained far apart on Friday in talksto avoid the across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that threaten to throw the country back into recession. While President Barack Obama visited a Pennsylvania toy factory to muster public support for tax hikes on the rich, portraying Republicans as scrooges at Christmas time, his primary adversary in negotiations,Republican House Speaker John Boehner, continued todescribe the situation as astalemate. The argument will resume on Sunday when Boehner, along with Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, and others, take to weekly political talk shows and pick up further steam nextweek with a possible confrontation in the House of Representatives between Democrats and Republicans over the timing of a vote on tax hikes. Lawmakers are nervously eyeing the markets as the deadline approaches, with gyrations likely to intensifypressure to bring the drama to a close. The markets, in turn watching the politicians, fellas Boehner spoke, but recovered afterward. It was a repeat of the pattern earlier in the weekwhen the speaker offered a similarly gloomy assessment. The latest round of high-stakes gamesmanshipfocuses on whether to extend the temporary tax cuts that originated under former President George W. Bush beyond their December 31 expiration date for all taxpayers, as Republicans want, or just for those with incomes under $250,000, as Obamaand his fellow Democrats want. After five days of increasingly confrontational exchanges,the work week drew to a close with an announcement by Democrats of a long-shot effort next week to force an early tax-hike vote in the Republican-controlled U.S. House to break the deadlock. MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she would undertake the rarelysuccessful effort unless Boehner agreed by Tuesday to bring a bill to the floor allowing taxes onthe wealthy to rise, something Boehner is highly unlikely to do until he is ready. "The clock is ticking," Pelosi said at a news conference. "The year is ending. It's really importantwith tax legislation for it tohappen now. We're calling upon the Republican leadership in the House to bring this legislation to thefloor next w