President Obama said yesterday that he was “modestly optimistic” that a fiscal-cliff catastrophe could yet be avoided — asserting that joint White House-congressional discussions earlier in the day had been “constructive.”
Here’s hoping.
No deal was immediately forthcoming, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell did agree to work over the weekend against the Jan. 1 deadline.
Reid also termed the meeting “constructive” — probably a hopeful sign, given the tenor of fiscal-cliff rhetoric in recent days.
A sign of what, however, is the question.
Is a serious proposal in play?
Or will it be a classic Washington “punt” — a stopgap constituting yet another artificial deadline in which Obama and congressional leaders push the pain into the future?
Trickery, however, will get Washington only so far.
Wall Street marked its fifth consecutive losing session Friday, with the Dow plunging 158 points — just one week after House Republicans scuttled a bill many members considered an unacceptable tax hike.
And it’s not lost on anyone that a Senate that hasn’t passed a budget in more than three years remains yet one more example of perpetual Washington dysfunction.
So if a breakthrough finally is reached this weekend, it means that Reid opted to do his job for once.
And if not — well, the economy truly will be sailing in dangerous waters.
Responsibility for that — and blame for unhappy consequences — ultimately will devolve to Obama.
Let’s hope his cautious optimism was warranted.