The top congressionial Republican called Friday on President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats to act to avert the looming "fiscal cliff", just hours after he was forced to pull his own "Plan B" proposal from consideration before a vote. "The House did not take up the tax bill last night because we didn't have the votes to pass it. It's not the outcome that I wanted, but that was the will of the House," dpa cited the Speaker of the House John Boehner as saying. "So unless the president and Congress take action, tax rates will go up on every American taxpayer and devastating defence cuts will go into effect in 10 days," he said, referring to the so-called fiscal cliff. -- SPA
