Edited by Jenny Jiang

Transcript of President Barack Obama’s remarks before meeting with Congressional leaders to discuss the fiscal cliff on Nov. 16, 2012: 

Well, I want to welcome the Congressional leadership here and thank them for their time.

I think we’re all aware that we have some urgent business to do.

We’ve got to make sure that taxes don’t go up on middle-class families, that our economy remains strong, that we’re creating jobs, and that’s an agenda that Democrats and Republicans and Independents – people all across the country – share.

So our challenge is to make sure that we are able to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground, make some tough compromises, build some consensus to do the people’s business.

And what folks are looking for – and I think we all of us agree on this – is action. They want to see that we are focused on them, not focused on our politics here in Washington.

So my hope is that this is going to be the beginning of a fruitful process where we’re able to come to an agreement that will reduce our deficit in a balanced way, that we will deal with some of these long-term impediments to growth, and we’re also going to be focusing on making sure the middle-class families are able to get ahead.

So I want to thank all the leadership for coming and with that, we’re going to get to work. Thank you very much, everybody.

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Learn More:

• C-Span.org: Video of Congressional leaders after meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the fiscal cliff on Nov. 16, 2012
• C-Span.org: Video of President Barack Obama speaking to reporters prior to the meeting with Congressional leaders on Nov. 16, 2012
• WhatTheFolly.com: Transcript: Remarks by Congressional leaders after meeting with President Obama to discuss the fiscal cliff
• WhatTheFolly.com: Transcript: President Obama’s remarks before meeting with Congressional leaders to discuss the fiscal cliff
• WhatTheFolly.com: White House holds “fiscal cliff” talks with Congressional leaders this week
• WhatTheFolly.com: Obama wins re-election, renews call for bipartisanship to solve nation’s debt problem
• WhatTheFolly.com: Transcript: Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s press briefing on the fiscal cliff on Nov. 9, 2012
• WhatTheFolly.com: President Obama: Everybody’s taxes will increase if Congress fails to pass deficit reduction package by Dec. 31
• WhatTheFolly.com: Transcript: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s post-election press briefing
• WhatTheFolly.com: Transcript: House Majority Leader John Boehner’s post-election press briefing