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WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the government appears headed over the so-called fiscal cliff because of a lack of progress in bipartisan negotiations.
The Nevada Democrat says it's up to congressional Republicans to come up with a plan that both houses would pass and President Barack Obama would sign.
Reid says of missing the Dec. 31 deadline to avoid the fiscal cliff, quote: "it looks like that's where we're headed."
Major tax hikes and spending cuts will hit most Americans if Congress and the White House don't reach a compromise by the year's end.
The House has no plans to convene, after last week's rebellion in which conservatives torpedoed Speaker John Boehner's legislation to prevent a tax increase on most people while letting them take effect on people earning more than a million dollars.
NO DEAL IN SIGHT
Lawmakers are engaged in a playground game of "who goes first," daring each other to let the year end without avoiding a Jan. 1 confluence of higher taxes and deep spending cuts.
President Obama returns from Hawaii Thursday to this familiar showdown in the nation's capital, with even a stopgap solution now in doubt. This post-Christmas period unfolds amid a growing sentiment that Congress could still act in January without causing economic harm.
But a big deficit reduction deal is unlikely. That puts pressure on how Congress deals with the nation's borrowing limit, which Republicans see as another budget-trimming opportunity.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday the government would hit its borrowing limit on Monday but said he would take "extraordinary measures as authorized by law" to postpone a government default.