White House

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**FILE** President Obama, accompanied by business people, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on April 30, 2010. (Associated Press)

**FILE** President Obama shakes hands with House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Nov. 16, 2012, during a meeting to discuss the deficit and economy. (Associated Press)

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** FILE ** In this Nov. 16, 2012, photo, President Obama acknowledges House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio while speaking to reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Admnistration officials say Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner met Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, at the White House to discuss the ongoing negotiations over the impeding "fiscal cliff." (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

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President Obama (right) walks with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner toward the Oval Office at the White House in Washington as he returns from speaking about the "fiscal cliff" at the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers, on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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President Obama and the first family light the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse south of the White House, Washington, D.C., Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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White House press secretary Jay Carney (AP photo)

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A festive crowd is bundled against a chilly evening Thursday for the annual lighting of the National Christmas Tree just south of the White House. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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President Obama and the first family light the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse south of the White House, Washington, D.C., Thursday, December 6, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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President Obama and the first family light the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse south of the White House, Washington, D.C., Thursday, December 6, 2012. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Conservative lawmakers and interest groups have said House Speaker John A. Boehner's offer of $800 billion in tax increases abandoned core Republican principles and earned no credit from a White House that has insisted on even bigger tax hikes. (Associated Press)