Washington crept toward a deal on Monday to avert massive tax increases starting at midnight (0500), with Republican senators indicating they will support a final agreement they described as "very very close." according to dpa. Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, who has been negotiating nearly nonstop since Saturday with Democratic leaders, told his colleagues that he agreed with US President Barack Obama that the priority was preventing tax hikes that otherwise would take place at midnight. "We are very close to a deal," McConnell said. The companion issue of spending cuts, he agreed with Obama, should be put off until later. Without a deal by midnight (0500 GMT), the economy would be dealt a 600-billion-dollar double punch of tax increases and massive across-the-board spending cuts. Two other top Republican senators - John McCain and Lindsey Graham - declared their support for the agreement still being hammered out. McConnell's comments came little more than an hour after Obama also said that a deal was "within sight." That deal reportedly would compromise on allowing pre-Bush-era tax rates to return on people earning more than 450,000 dollars. Democrats wanted a 250,000-dollar threshold while Republicans wanted even the wealthiest Americans to continue benefiting from the Bush era tax cuts.
