Obama returns as pressure mounts on Republicans - The Guardian

President Obama is on his way back to Washington DC, cutting short his Christmas holiday in Hawaii in an attempt to restart negotiations with Republicans in Congress over a deal to head off the fiscal cliff combination of tax rises and slashing budget cuts.

The White House says that the president called all four party leaders in Congress en route from Honolulu, including the key figure of Speaker of the House John Boehner.

President Obama spoke to all four Congressional leaders yesterday before departing for Washington, DC

— Dan Pfeiffer (@pfeiffer44) December 27, 2012

As Obama was reaching out, the Democratic party leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, was issuing a blistering attack on Boehner and the House Republicans from the floor of the Senate this morning, predicting that time had run out to agree a deal. A dyspeptic Reid accused Boehner of operating a "dictatorship" in the House for not allowing a vote on a bill passed by the Senate extending the Bush-era rates to those earning less than $250,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the House Republicans – still on holiday – held a conference call with their leaders, including Boehner. But Boehner's position appears to remain that the president and the Democrats in Congress are now responsible for coming up with a plan.

But with only five days remaining until the cliff is reached in 2013, the odds are against a deal.

President Obama boards Air Force One at Honolulu Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to return to Washington. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP