President Obama asked the Congress to approve his proposal to extend tax rate for 98 percent of Americans before he leaves for a holiday to Hawaii Friday evening to spend Christmas with his family.
"All of us, every single one of us, agree that tax rates shouldn't go up for the other 98% of Americans," Obama said, "Every member of Congress believes that."
The president's proposal was not appreciated by some of the congressional Republicans who want to raise the current tax rates.
Obama said he would continue to work with Congress, but that the tax bill should come first. "Let's get that done," he said
"If Republicans truly want to ensure American families' taxes don't go up on January 1, they should simply pass the Senate bill," Reid said on the Senate floor.
"No comprehensive agreement can pass either chamber without both Democratic votes and Republican votes," Reid said, "Which means any solution will have to ask the most fortunate among us to pay a little more to reduce the deficit and ensure partisanship doesn't take the nation to the brink of default a few months from now.
"We see a situation where because of the political divide in the country, because of the divide here in Washington, trying to bridge these differences has been difficult," he said.
Boehner said he did not believe Thursday's failure to pass the bill would hurt his speakership.
"If you do the right thing every day for the right reasons, the right thing will happen."
