Pete Souza/Official White House photo

President Barack Obama is interviewed by David Gregory of NBC's "Meet the Press" on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012 in an official White House photo by Pete Souza.

As the hours remaining for action dwindle, Washington and the nation prepared to hear more from President Barack Obama about the outlines of an acceptable deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff while Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill labored through what would normally be a relaxing holiday weekend.

After tasking the Senate with generating a compromise that would avert the onset of across-the-board automatic tax hikes and spending cuts on Jan. 1, the president was set to address some of the trade-offs he might accept in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The round-the-clock talks were the byproduct of a meeting at the White House on Friday between the president and congressional leaders from both parties as the urgency to avoid the New Year's Day deadline increases. Those discussions produced a shift between the generally unilateral negotiations between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and toward new negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

PRESS PASS: Obama on 'Meet the Press' in Sunday exclusive

For his part, Boehner has demanded that the Senate act first to produce legislation, on which he said the House would act — to either approve or amend it.

But the Saturday negotiations between Reid and McConnell appeared — outwardly, at least — to yield little in the way of consensus. Obama said Friday that if the Senate leaders could not strike a deal, he would ask Reid to advance bare-boned legislation that would preserve tax rates on income under $250,000 and extend expiring benefits for the unemployed.

Related: Senate leaders work to beat fiscal cliff clock

A Senate Democratic aide said Saturday afternoon that Democrats were preparing to move ahead with that very plan and were not particularly optimistic about the prospects of reaching an accord with McConnell, whom they characterized as offering proposals he knows the Democrats will not accept.

Reid did not go to the Capitol on Saturday, the aide said, and talks played out primarily at a staff level and talks were expected to continue.

A Senate Republican aide, meanwhile, cautioned against expecting an announcement or news before tomorrow afternoon, at which point senators will be briefed then about the weekend talks. The House will also return for work on Sunday evening, around 6:30 p.m. ET.

"We have been in discussions all day, and they continue. And we will let you know as soon as we have some news to make," McConnell told reporters Saturday as he left the Capitol. "We have been trading paper all day and talks continue into the evening."

With his interview Sunday morning, Obama might look to add a new sense of urgency to the last-minute negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff, which itself is an outgrowth of lawmakers' inability to reach any consensus in the past two years about how to address taxes and the rising national debt.

Related: More coverage of 'Meet the Press'

Obama led Democrats this year by campaigning for re-election on allowing the 2001 Bush tax cuts — which the president in 2010 agreed extend for two years past their original expiration date — to end for the wealthiest Americans. Republicans struck conciliatory notes after Obama's victory in November, but that language has given way over the course of negotiations to more familiar sniping over taxes and spending.

The top lawmakers on the Congressional Agriculture Committees are prepared with a plan to avert the dairy cliff, NBC News has learned. This is an agreement between Democrats and Republicans who run those committees and oversee the massive FARM bill that affects the entire food industry and 16 million agriculture related jobs.

NBC has learned that this FARM offer -- which will be discussed during President Barack Obama's meeting with House and Senate leaders from both parties on the broader fiscal cliff -- would likely get the most attention as a "keep-milk-affordable" proposal.

Without action by Congress, dairy prices would begin to soar to an estimated $8 dollars per gallon beginning in January. The pricing would revert to 1940s farm policy, when milk costs were tied to a more labor intensive production. Dairy is the first of many food sectors that would be affected based on their respective seasons.

This bipartisan proposal would extend the terms of the most recent FARM Act, which expired Sept. 30. The length of the extension is still to be determined, though an extension for less than one year is preferred.  Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said she intends to keep fighting for a full 5-year extension, but believes a short term solution is needed now.

The FARM bill passed the Senate but House GOP leaders have refused to bring it the floor for a vote. There are deep partisan divides over parts of the bill like farm subsidy reforms that would reduce what are known as "direct payments" to farmers. 

Lawmakers behind this idea in both House and the Senate hope to include the FARM extension in any fiscal cliff deal should one materialize

Updated 6:30 p.m. ET -- President Barack Obama tasked the United States Senate with trying to resolve the “fiscal cliff” in the waning hours before the New Year following a meeting between congressional leaders and the president.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will lead the last-minute effort to avert the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect on Jan. 1 unless Congress acts. 

And Obama said he is “optimistic” they can reach an accord before midnight on New Year’s Eve, the point at which the government would hit the fiscal cliff.

Absent that, the president said he had asked Reid to instead advance a bare-boned proposal that would extend the 2001 Bush tax cuts for income under $250,000.

Related -- Cliff Notes: Five things to watch at today's White House meeting

“I still want to get this done,” Obama said after his discussions with congressional leaders. He said “the hour for immediate action is here. It is now." 

The president will appear exclusively on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," where he's expected to further outline steps toward reaching a final deal.

The White House talks -- at which Obama presented no new offer to Republicans in Congress -- yielded “no concrete proposal,” Reid told reporters at the Capitol following the meeting.

But in the waning hours before the end-of-year deadline, senators are now scrambling to produce a bipartisan package, at the request of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that can muster enough support in the House.

Reid, McConnell, Boehner, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., spent the meeting “discussing potential options and components for a plan that could pass both chambers of Congress,” according to a Boehner aide. 

But the most significant development appeared to be the emerging consensus that any final agreement would have to emerge from the Senate. That deal would necessarily require a “bipartisan approach,” according to the office of McConnell, the Republican leader in the upper chamber.

Among the major sticking points, senior Democratic aides told NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell, involve the income threshold at which tax rates would be allowed to rise and the level at which estates are taxed.

Boehner’s failed effort last week to push through a fallback plan with only Republican votes laid bare the internal GOP divisions after conservatives balked at supporting a plan from the speaker to allow tax rates to rise on income over $1 million.

The unsuccessful effort suggested that Boehner would need to lean upon Pelosi for Democratic votes if a deal -- which has eluded Obama and Congress for the better part of the last two years -- is to pass. 

A Senate-led agreement, though, faces no surefire guarantee of passage in the House. 

“The speaker told the president that if the Senate amends the House-passed legislation and sends back a plan, the House will consider it -- either by accepting or amending,” Boehner’s aide emailed reporters.

The protracted stalemate between Obama-led Democrats and congressional Republicans had prompted Friday's last-ditch meeting at the White House. It lasted just over an hour, and included Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Sources familiar with the meeting said that Obama made no new offer to Republicans, urging them to hold an up-or-down vote on a Democratic proposal to preserve existing tax rates for income under $250,000 and extend unemployment benefits (among other unresolved issues). 

It’s that very proposal which Obama said he would ask Reid to advance should he and McConnell fail to strike a deal. 

“I believe such a proposal could pass both houses with bipartisan majorities, as long as those leaders actually allow it to come to a vote,” he said.

Republicans had previously rejected such a proposal, but could feel pressure to relent to administration pressure in order to forestall across-the-board tax hikes in just a few days. The source familiar with the meeting told NBC's Peter Alexander and Kristen Welker that Obama asked Republicans what they would be willing to support, if not that proposal.

Amid negotiations toward a final deal, the House was set to return to Washington on Sunday at Boehner’s request, and remain at work through Jan. 2 -- the final day before the 112th Congress concludes and the next batch of lawmakers are sworn into office.

In the meanwhile, Obama voiced frustration toward the repeated pattern in Congress these past few years of lurching from crisis to crisis before reaching a last-minute deal to stave off catastrophe. 

“The American people are watching what we do here. Obviously, their patience is already thin. This is deja vu all over again,” Obama said. “America wonders why, for some reason, in this town you can’t get stuff done in an organized timetable ... The American people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy.”

House and Senate leaders from both parties will make their way to the White House this afternoon at President Barack Obama’s request for a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement to avoid the impending fiscal cliff.

Related: Obama bringing lawmakers to Oval Office for last-minute 'cliff' talks

The parties will enter the meeting seeming as far apart as ever on an agreement to avert the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect on Jan. 1. Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, say they have acted – by passing an extension of all of the expiring Bush tax cuts, an unpalatable proposition to Democrats – and now it’s the Senate’s turn.

The speaker’s office said Boehner “will continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act” at tomorrow’s meeting.

And the Senate, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is demanding that the GOP-held House assents to a bill that would allow taxes to rise on income over $250,000 per year.

This posturing by both parties amounts to little more than a stalemate in lawmakers’ effort to avert the fiscal cliff, just days before the deadline to forge a deal. With that in mind, here are the variables to watch, which could signal either breakthrough or failure on the fiscal cliff.

TONE: Hopes for a fiscal cliff compromise spiked on Nov. 16 when the same congressional leaders who are gathering Friday appeared jointly following their first meeting at the White House to hail the “constructive” conversation, all the while avoiding the usual partisan barbs.

Negotiations have deteriorated in the weeks since then, to say the least.

But with time running out before the end-of-year deadline, how or whether lawmakers speak following their meeting with Obama could speak volumes about the prospects for a deal.

If Boehner, Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appear jointly – as they did in mid-November – it might portend good things about a potential resolution to the fiscal cliff.

But if they take to the microphones outside the West Wing separately (or issue statements), offering more vitriolic rhetoric and finger pointing, it would suggest bleak prospects for ongoing negotiations.

PROCESS: Much of the recent stalemate in Congress, as outlined above, involves whether it’s up to the House or the Senate to act first to resolve the fiscal cliff.

Recommended: Nearly out of time, lawmakers brace for blame on fiscal cliff

Neither party wants to be the one to make the first major concession, meaning that the House is looking to the Senate (and vice-versa) to be the first chamber to “jump,” so to speak.

Boehner has clearly and repeatedly signaled his desire to let the legislative process take its course. He argues that the Senate should amend any of the earlier tax bills that the Republican House has passed. The Senate could conceivably gut that legislation, replace it with any alternative that the upper chamber desires, and send it back to the House to see whether it can pass.

Alternatively, Reid is simply demanding that Republicans pass an existing Democratic tax bill, which would preserve existing tax rates on income under $250,000 a year. (Republicans counter that this law has a so-called “blue slip” problem –asserting that it’s procedurally flawed because tax bills cannot originate in the Senate, according to the Constitution.)

If the leaders emerge from their meeting at the White House with a clear idea of which chamber might act first, it would be a first step toward resolving the fiscal cliff by the New Year’s Eve deadline.

NUMBERS: Senate Democrats want the House to pass a bill that would preserve existing tax rates on incomes below $250,000.

Obama offered a deal to Boehner that would preserve income beneath a slightly higher threshold: $400,000 per year.

Boehner tried – and failed – to pass a bill (his “Plan B”) that would have kept tax rates the same for all income under $1 million.

If the leaders emerge from the White House today with some sort of number on which they have agreed, it could provide the framework for a final agreement.

Related: Boehner calls House back to Washington on Sunday

Just as important have been the topline numbers – that is, the target total savings in an agreement as collected from new taxes, or alternatively, spending cuts.

The president initially sought $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue before lowering that target to $1.4 trillion. Republicans offered $800 billion in revenue, which they said could be collected through tax reform that closes a number of deductions and loopholes.

At the same time, Obama’s last offer to Boehner included $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, including $400 billion in savings from entitlement programs.

An agreement of that scale seems unlikely with just a few days to go until the deadline, but an agreement on these topline numbers – either on a small deal, or a big deal – would suggest a degree of progress toward a solution.

CAN-KICKING: One option available to lawmakers would be to do something they’ve done all along: punt the problem to a later deadline.

In many respects, the fiscal cliff represents the ultimate example of lawmakers’ habit of kicking the can down the road. The automatic spending cuts that compose part of the cliff grew out of their inability to reach an agreement with Obama on taxes and spending during the debt ceiling fight in 2011. And the impending tax hikes are the byproduct of a two-year extension of the 2001 Bush tax cuts past their original expiration date in 2010.

But what Congress can do, it can also undo. And that means they could conceivably agree to delay the onset of the fiscal cliff for weeks, months or even a year to give themselves breathing room to negotiate a deal.

Furthermore, a decision to delay the fiscal cliff could mean that the contours of a fiscal cliff compromise have taken shape, and that lawmakers just need more time to hammer out the details. Alternatively, another can-kicking incident could rattle markets thanks to another instance of governing by lurching from crisis to crisis. Furthermore, it would do little to resolve the uncertainty on taxes that is hanging over many businesses heading into the new year.

THE FLANKS: Lastly, it’s important to keep an eye on the flanks in both parties – liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans – in terms of how they react to today’s meeting, and any possible deal that might emerge.

How many liberals or conservatives finish the day rattling their sabers, versus sitting on their hands?

The more anger there is on either flank toward any potential proposal, the more difficult it becomes for leaders in the House and Senate to find the necessary votes to approve an agreement – especially in such a politically polarized environment.

The importance of the flanks played vividly last week in the House, when conservatives refused to go along with Boehner’s “Plan B” (the proposal that would have allowed taxes to go up on millionaires) because, as the speaker put it, “they were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes.”

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

President Barack Obama returns from Christmas visit in Hawaii to the White House, Dec. 27, 2012.

Any final agreement will almost certainly have to involve both Democratic and Republican votes. But if either party’s base is incensed by Friday’s meeting at the White House, it would make mustering the political willpower to pass an agreement that much more difficult.

The House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday evening, just less than 30 hours before the United States reaches the fiscal cliff.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, notified lawmakers that the House would come to order at 6:30 p.m. ET on Sunday in hopes of averting the end-of-year combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that constitute the fiscal cliff.

In briefing fellow Republicans on Thursday afternoon, Boehner re-iterated what he's said publicly the past few days. The top House Republican said the Senate must act first to send a bill to the House. (Senate Democratic leaders are insisting that the House pass a Senate bill that would preserve income tax rates on those earning less than $250,000 per year.)

"We've done our job, it's up to the Senate to act," Boehner told members, according to a lawmaker on the call. "We'll see if they do anything."

Related: What happens if we go over the cliff?

Whether any final deal could emerge in the waning hours before the Dec. 31 deadline was less clear. There were rumblings of a meeting on Friday between President Barack Obama and leaders in Congress. (A senior administration official told NBC's Kristen Welker that no such meeting had been set up.) And the White House shot down Republican-fueled indications that the Obama administration had made a new entreaty to the GOP in hopes of averting the fiscal cliff. 

Obama called congressional leaders on Wednesday evening before departing Hawaii to return to Washington, initiating conversations that fell largely dormant during the Christmas holiday this past weekend. 

Among the complicating details include the ideological split in both parties that might force relative moderates from both parties to join forces to advance any final deal. 

The lawmaker on Thursday's call told NBC News that any Senate plan Boehner puts on the House floor (of which there is no guarantee) would only receive as few as 40 Republican votes, making Democratic help necessary.

"If the Senate will not approve these bills and send them to the president to be signed into law in their current form, they must be amended and returned to the House," Boehner told Republicans Thursday, according to a source on the call. "Once this has occurred, the House will then consider whether to accept the bills as amended, or to send them back to the Senate with additional amendments. The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass -- but the Senate must act." 

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, left, joined by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., returns to his office after speaking to reporters on the fiscal cliff negotiations, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012.

Updated 2:48 p.m. - The Senate’s top Democrat said Thursday that he was pessimistic that Washington could avoid the impending fiscal cliff, accusing House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, of running the lower chamber as a “dictatorship.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was unsure there was enough time between now and the end of the year to reach a deal to avoid the combination of spending cuts and tax hikes set to take effect on Jan. 1. Reid said “the only viable escape route” was for the GOP-controlled House to give its approval to a Senate bill that would preserve existing tax rates on income under $250,000.

“Everyone knows that if they had brought up the Senate-passed bill, it would pass overwhelmingly. But the speaker says, no we can't do that,” Reid said on the Senate floor this morning. “It's [the House] being operated by a dictatorship of the speaker.”

In response, a spokesman for Boehner said in a statement,  "Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff.  Senate Democrats have not."

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Reid’s remarks suggest there has been no thaw in the stalemate that has plagued Washington for weeks, as consensus continues to elude Republicans and Democrats on averting the fiscal cliff. Amid the standoff, President Barack Obama called Reid and  Boehner (along with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell) late Wednesday from Hawaii. The president traveled back to the White House on Thursday following his brief family vacation.

"The leader is happy to review what the president has in mind, but to date, the Senate Democrat majority has not put forward a plan," said a spokesman for McConnell. "When they do, members on both sides of the aisle will review the legislation and make decisions on how best to proceed."

The discord almost gave way to an agreement on Thursday, as outgoing Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, R, posted on social media that he was rushing back to Washington to mull over a new offer Obama had made to Senate Republicans. Alas, those were false hopes; the administration and Senate Democrats flatly denied that they had made any new offer, and said that no agreement was imminent.

Both parties departed Washington on poor terms, a political chasm widened last week by Boehner’s unsuccessful pitch of “Plan B” legislation meant to extend tax rates on income under $1 million. Obama had vowed to veto it, and Boehner’s backup plan was generally regarded as more of a negotiating ploy than a comprehensive solution to the impending fiscal cliff. Nonetheless, conservatives balked at the speaker’s plan, laying bare Boehner’s ability to rally most Republicans behind any deal that even hinted at raising taxes.

And just five days before the onset of the fiscal cliff, Washington was locked in little more than a staring match between the House and Senate.

Republican leaders said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the Senate must amend Republican-passed legislation and return it to the House before any steps can be taken.

“The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass, but the Senate first must act,” the GOP leaders said.

But Reid said that arcane Senate rules prevented him from bringing up anything new for a vote. Republican leaders argue that the Senate bill also faces procedural flaws which would prevent it from consideration in the House; Democrats assert that the excuse is nonsense.

In the meantime, it appears that Thursday might be a lost day for negotiations. Obama landed in Washington around midday, but most House members remain in their districts. But Republican leaders notified their rank-and-file members that the House would be in session at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, and remain so for the remainder of the year. The Senate is in session on Thursday, but is concentrating on other unfinished business from this year.

The absence of the House, though, prompted Reid to lay into Republicans and fret that a fiscal cliff failure was all but inevitable.

“If we go over the cliff, and it looks like that's where we're headed, Mr. President – the House of Representatives as we speak with four days left after today before the first year aren't here with the speaker telling him he'll give them 48 hours’ notice," he said. "I can't imagine their consciences – they're out wherever they are around the country and we're here trying to get something done."

Mary F. Calvert / Reuters

The U.S. Capitol building is pictured as lawmakers return from the Christmas recess in Washington Dec. 27, 2012.

Amid the standoff, each party was left bracing for the potential political fallout associated with a fiscal cliff failure.

The bleak atmosphere in Washington appeared to be extending across the country, for instance. A Gallup poll conducted Dec. 21-22 – as lawmakers left the Capitol for the Christmas holiday with no deal in hand – found that optimism in leaders’ ability to reach a deal had declined; just 50 percent viewed a deal as somewhat or very likely, versus 48 percent who said a fiscal cliff agreement was not too or very unlikely.

And as Congress and the administration appears set to do anything but, 68 percent of Americans said they thought the principal actors should compromise, versus sticking rigidly to their ideological guideposts.

As lawmakers departed Washington without progress on the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations, President Barack Obama urged members of Congress to "cool off" over the Christmas holiday and address a short-term solution to the looming deficit issue before the end of the year, even if a larger bargain remains out of reach for now.

"In the next few days I've asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for two million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction," he said in a statement to reporters late Friday afternoon. "That's an achievable goal."

Obama said that Republicans and Democrats agree that tax rates on all but the top two percent of earners should not be raised by the cliff's automatically-triggered measures that will go into effect in just 10 days without congressional action.

"Averting this middle class tax hike is not a Democratic responsibility or a Republican responsibility," he argued. "With their votes, the American people have determined that governing is a shared responsibility between both parties."

His remarks came after the House failed to take action on a 'Plan B' measure to maintain Bush-era tax rates for all earners making under $1 million annually. That bill was opposed by the White House as well as by much of House Speaker John Boehner's own caucus, and Boehner was forced to pull it from the floor without a vote.

Related:  Boehner's fiscal path forward: 'God only knows'

Obama alluded to that turmoil in his remarks, as well as to some dissent within his own party about potential compromises on entitlements and spending cuts.

"The challenge that we've got right now is that the American people are a lot more sensible, a lot more thoughtful, and much more willing to compromise and give and sacrifice and act responsibly than their elected representatives are," Obama said. "That's a problem."

"Call me a hopeless optimist," the president near the end of his remarks, "but I actually still think we can get it done."

The House and Senate adjourned for the Christmas holiday today.  Following his remarks Friday evening, the president and his family departed for a holiday break in Hawaii.

Urging members to consider avenues for compromise, Obama asked members of Congress to get "perspective" during the Christmas holiday before returning to Washington to work on a short-term deal.

"As we leave town for a few days to be with our families for the holidays, I hope that gives everybody some perspective," he said. "Everybody can cool off, everybody can drink some egg nog, have some Christmas cookies, sing some Christmas carols, enjoy the company of loved ones. And I'd ask every member of Congress, while they're at home, to think about that, to think about the obligations we have to the people who sent us here."

Updated 1:19 p.m. — A path toward resolving the impending the co-called fiscal cliff was suspended in limbo Friday following a dramatic defeat for House Speaker John Boehner, whose own rank-and-file members refused to support his backup plan Thursday night.

After conservatives balked at Boehner's "Plan B," which would have preserved current income tax rates for those making less than $1 million, the nation's top elected Republican shrugged off questions about whether his job was in danger. And as Washington prepares for a holiday break, Democrats and Republicans are further apart than ever on a plan to avoid the combination of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect in just 11 days.

And the Ohio Republican emerged Friday urging President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats to re-engage in talks toward an overarching deal toward resolving the fiscal cliff, the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts (which fall heavily upon the defense budget) set to take effect on Jan. 1.

"I'm interested in solving the major problems facing our country," Boehner said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "And that means House leaders, Senate leaders and the president are going to continue to have to work together to address those concerns."

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., demanded that Boehner allow a Democratic proposal to extend tax rates for income under $250,000 to come up for a vote.

"There's nothing preventing the speaker from taking up our bill," Reid said Friday afternoon on the Senate floor. Boehner did say the House would "certainly take a look" at that bill, if the Senate manages to resolve a procedural holdup that would bar the House from considering the legislation. (Reid called that excuse "phony.")

But the speaker's task has become more vexing than ever; conservatives sent a powerful signal yesterday that they would not approve any tax increase, even on millionaires. Obama's demand that tax rates be allowed to rise for the wealthiest Americans amounts to a seemingly intractable standoff with House Republicans.

Boehner said that many lawmakers still prefer broad reforms to the tax code, but he acknowledged the difficulty in reaching any consensus: "How we get there? God only knows."

The speaker seemed unconcerned, though, about the prospects for an uprising from fellow Republicans.

"No, I am not," Boehner said when asked directly whether he should be concerned about his position. "If you do the right things every day for the right reasons, the right things will happen."

Republican leaders dismissed House lawmakers for the holiday weekend after pulling the vote on Thursday evening. Boehner said they would be recalled to Washington "as needed." The Democratic-controlled Senate is currently scheduled to reconvene next Thursday, Dec. 27. 

"It's too bad Speaker Boehner wasted a week on this futile, political stunt," Reid said. "It's time for the speaker and all Republicans to return to the negotiating table."

The intervening time period might allow for Boehner and Obama to reach an agreement, though its final approval in the House would almost certainly involve the speaker turning to Democrats for votes. That would strengthen Obama's ability to insist upon tax rates, spending cuts and entitlement reforms that hew more closely to the plan on which he campaigned for much of this year. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Boehner has "done his part. He's bent over backwards." As an alternative, the top Senate Republican proposed extending tax rates for a full year with instructions to enact tax reform in the meanwhile. (Democrats rejected it out-of-hand.)

For their part, Republicans said they would look to Obama for action on a path forward.

"I don't want taxes to go up, Republicans don't want taxes to go up," Boehner said. "But we only run the House; Democrats continue to run Washington."

McConnell said: "It's the president's job — it's his job — to find a solution that can pass the Congress."

In the meanwhile, Boehner said he remained committed to working toward a deal, and said he was not interested in giving up his position as speaker. 

Updated 1:53 p.m. - Republicans, confident that they would have the votes to be successful, said they would push ahead with their alternative plan to resolve the "fiscal cliff," even as Senate Democrats said the GOP proposal would never even be allowed a vote in their chamber.

GOP leaders said they intended to follow through with their vote to pass a pair of bills which would preserve tax rates on income less than $1 million and approve new spending cuts in place of the automatic cuts -- many to defense -- set to take effect on Jan. 1. 

"Absent a balanced option from the president, this is our nation's best option," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told reporters on Capitol Hill. "And Senate Democrats should take up both of these measures immediately."

President Barack Obama has promised to veto the legislation; it is virtually dead-on-arrival in the Senate, where Democrats oppose the proposal.

"Until Republicans take up our bill in the House -- the one that passed here -- there's nothing to discuss," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "We're not taking up any of the things they're working on over there now." 

The partisan standoff devolved into protracted gamesmanship that appeared to move Democrats and Republicans no closer to a deal to resolve the fiscal cliff just 12 days before its onset. Much of Thursday's action in Washington, represented in a series of dueling press conferences throughout the day, seemed to have more to do with positioning each party for the possibility of failure than reaching the kind of agreement that has eluded lawmakers for so long. 

"After today, Senate Democrats and the White House are going to have to act on this measure," Boehner said at an afternoon press conference. "If Senate Democrats and the White House refuse to act, they'll be responsible for the largest tax hike in American history." 

With less than 12 days until the tax hikes and spending cuts which compose the "fiscal cliff" will snap into place, Republicans remain locked in a stalemate with Obama over the extent of the expiring tax rates they should extend, as well as how deep of cuts should be made -- and to which programs. 

Republicans' Plan B proposal, on which the House will vote this evening, came after the White House offered a deal in which no taxes would go up on income under $400,000, along with changes as to how Social Security benefits would be allowed to grow in coming years. But the administration views the plan as a non-starter, meaning that today's vote serves little more purpose than to posture the GOP for the final stages of negotiations (or, for the political fallout that would result from going over the fiscal cliff.) 

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., second from right, walks to a Republican strategy session with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012.

"I've done my part," Boehner said about the state of negotiations. "They've done nothing." 

A handful of conservative Republicans, who oppose tax increases in virtually every instance, have said they would vote against their leadership on Plan B, making House Speaker John Boehner's, R-Ohio, task in approving the bill more difficult. Boehner can suffer only 24 defections from fellow Republicans if no Democrats break ranks and support the plan. 

Cantor, on Thursday, confidently predicted the bill would have adequate support when it reaches a final vote, tentatively scheduled for this evening. 

"We're going to have the votes to pass both the permanent tax relief bill as well as the spending reduction bill," he said. 

At the same time, Democrats ridiculed Republicans' strategy as a waste of time given Obama and Senate Democratic leaders' stated opposition to even allowing for consideration of the plan. 

But the speaker said he wasn't convinced his backup proposal really was dead in the Senate. "I'm not convinced at all that when the bill passes the House today, it will die in the Senate," he said. 

The impending Christmas holiday -- along with some congressional leaders' travel to Hawaii this weekend for the funeral of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, D -- means there are few working days left for Republicans to resolve their standoff with Democrats and Obama. 

Reid said that senators would be asked to return to Washington next Thursday, four days before the fiscal cliff. 

Cantor said that the plan -- as of now -- was for lawmakers to stay in Washington following tonight's Plan B vote.

"We do not intend to send members home after this vote," he said. "We want to stay here, we want to avoid the fiscal cliff from happening." 

Boehner also said the House would stay in Washington past tonight's vote, though he would not say for how long.

A spokesman for Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., says the former vice presidential nominee and current House Budget Chairman plans to vote in support of Speaker Boehner's "Plan B" measure that would extend Bush-era tax rates for Americans making less than $1 million annually but not for incomes over $1 million.

"Chairman Ryan will continue to work to protect as many Americans as possible from tax hikes," said the aide. "Chairman Ryan believes that Speaker Boehner's "Plan B" meets that criteria."

If Ryan were to oppose the plan -- which has earned scorn from some anti-tax conservatives who say they will not accept any tax increases, even on top earners -- it could have been seen as a sign that Boehner had lost control of the GOP conference.

The vote on the measure is currently scheduled for tomorrow on the House floor.