Fiscal cliff issue top priority, says Joe Biden

Washington: Addressing the issue of “fiscal cliff” is going to be the first and top priority now, the US Vice President Joe Biden has said listing out the priorities of the re-elected Obama Administration, wherein he would continue to play the same role as in the past four years. Getting down to the business, not only the US President Barack Obama, but also Biden called a number of top Congressional leaders to discuss with them the issues on hand and how to address them. [caption id=“attachment_518768” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Joe Biden. AP[/caption] “My takeaway is that we’ve got a lot of work to do. I talked to the President. We’re really anxious to get moving on, first of all, dealing with the first things first, this fiscal cliff. I think we can do it,” Biden told a vice president poll reporter on Wednesday. “I think the real takeaway is what is the takeaway going to be on the part of our Republican colleagues. What judgment are they going to make? And having been a Democrat elected in 1972 by 3200 votes, I know it takes a little time to kind of digest what’s going on. But I’ve been talking to a lot of people, made a lot of phone calls. I’m not going to get into who. But I think people know we’ve got to get down to work and I think they’re ready to move,” he said. Biden said the Obama Administration is willing to compromise with the Republican leadership on key issues facing the nation. “We’re going to have to compromise too. It’s not like we’re going to go in and say, this is our deal. Take it or leave it. And I still think that’s there, we’re now 55 seats (in the Senate). And the House as well. They’re going to have to take a look at – like we did back when I first got started — take a look at will the same formula work?” he said. The Vice President expressed optimism about addressing the issue of immigration reform and said that the administration is going to take adequate steps in this regard. Biden said that they are prepared to work with Republican leadership to actually deal with the two overarching problems- the whole sequester piece and the other is the tax piece. “It’s possible you can bifurcate them. It’s possible, there’s all kinds of potential to be able to reach a rational, principled compromise. But it’s going to be an interesting - I think the most interesting caucus is going to be the Republican caucus,” he said. Responding to a question, Biden said his role is unlikely to change in the Obama Administration. “I think it will be the same. Look I am, the relationship is the same, one where the president and I have become good friends and confidants. I think I’ll probably be asked to play a similar role on the debt issue as we did last time,” he said. PTI