Sharpton, Jealous among civic leaders to meet with Obama on 'fiscal cliff'

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With the so-called “fiscal cliff” approaching at the end of the year, President Barack Obama is holding meetings with various groups, including business and labor leaders, to solicit ideas on how to tackle the nation’s budget deficits.

On Friday, a group of civic leaders became the latest to meet with the president.

“The president has been very clear that he wants to work together with members of Congress in both parties to find common ground to address the challenges facing our nation at the end of the year,” a White House official said Thursday.

“The president will continue to urge Congress to act on one thing we all agree on — ensuring that taxes don’t go up on 98 percent of American families and 97 percent of small businesses at the end of the year.  This would not only give certainty to millions of American families and small businesses but also resolve more than half of the impact of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff.'”

The officials said the president would use the Friday meeting to “reiterate that he wants to work with leaders in both parties to achieve a significant, balanced deficit reduction plan that puts our nation on a sustainable fiscal path. He will be make clear that he is willing to compromise and do tough things to get this done, but only in the context of a balanced approach that also asks more in revenues from the wealthiest Americans.”

Among those meeting with the president will be Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, and host of Politics Nation on MSNBC, Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League and Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP.

Also attending the meeting: Sister Simone Campbell of the Catholic social justice lobbying group NETWORK, Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, Also at the meeting will be Januet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Deepa Iyer of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, Barry Rand of the seniors advocacy group AARP, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner of MomsRising.org, Aaron Smith of the group Young Invincibles, and Rev. Jim Wallis of the faith-based group Sojourners.