Updated 10:48 a.m. - President Barack Obama would veto House Republicans' "Plan B" legislation should it make its way to the White House, a top administration spokesman said Wednesday.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement that the GOP backup proposal -- which would preserve existing tax rates on income less than $1 million past the end of this year -- "does not meet the test of balance, and the president would veto the legislation in the unlikely event of its passage."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, unveiled the "Plan B" proposal on Tuesday amid stalled talks with Obama toward resolving the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to take place on Jan. 1 -- the so-called fiscal cliff.

The proposal would allow tax rates rise on income over $1 million, matching a previous Democratic proposal earlier this year. The administration, however, has set a lower threshold ($400,000 per year) at which it believes taxes should be allowed to rise. Moreover, the administration has argued for a more comprehensive agreement that includes spending cuts and entitlement reforms, but also new spending projects and an extension of unemployment insurance.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama walks back to the Oval Office of the White House in Washington December 18, 2012.

"The congressional Republican 'Plan B' legislation continues large tax cuts for the very wealthiest individuals - on average, millionaires would see a tax break of $50,000 - while eliminating tax cuts that 25 million students and families struggling to make ends meet depend on and ending critical incentives for our nation’s businesses," Pfeiffer said.

Republicans, as of now, plan to move forward with a set of twin votes on Thursday, one to maintain existing tax rates for those earning less than $250,000 per year (Obama's existing proposal) and the GOP "Plan B" alternative. Boehner. who is continuing to negotiate a broader deal with Obama, will likely have to pass his backup plan only with Republican support -- and even then, conservatives who are leery of raising any taxes at all may defect.

"The president urges the Republican leadership to work with us to resolve remaining differences and find a reasonable solution to this situation today instead of engaging in political exercises that increase the possibility that taxes go up on every American," Pfeiffer wrote.

"The White House’s opposition to a back-up plan to ensure taxes don’t rise on American families is growing more bizarre and irrational by the day," said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck in response. "Republicans have always said a broader, ‘balanced’ plan is the ideal solution, and we have put one forward. In the absence of a ‘balanced’ solution from the President, however, we must act to stop taxes from rising across the board in 12 days. If Democrats disapprove of this bill, then there is a simple solution: amend it in the Senate and send it back to the House."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday that she backs President Barack Obama's newest proposal to avert the fiscal cliff, defying some progressive Democrats who object to an included cost-of-living calculation that could effectively cut entitlement benefits to Social Security recipients.

Asked by NBC's Andrea Mitchell if she believes she can rally enough Democratic support to pass the White House's plan, Pelosi responded "Yes, I do."

"I believe the president has demonstrated great leadership in what he put forth," she said, arguing that the White House plan would help avert the cliff, create consumer confidence and avoid a credit rating downgrade.

Pelosi pushed back on progressive opponents of one compromise measure that would modify the way cost-of-living increases are calculated to determine Society Security payments. While some in the Democratic Party say that the change -- called "chained CPI" --  would effectively cut Social Security payments, the minority leader said Tuesday that the effects on poor recipients would be minimal once all of the specifics of the deal are worked out.

"The details of this are not all ironed out, but they all mitigate for helping the poorest and neediest in our society, whether they are [Supplemental Security Income] recipients, whether they're 80 and older, or whether they're truly needy," she said.

But, she added, she would join some of those progressive Democrats in opposing an increase in the Medicare eligibility age.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks to reporters in the Capitol in Washington December 13, 2012.

Pelosi also came out against House Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" proposal earlier Tuesday to push a standalone measure that would address tax rates for earners under $1 million.

"Plan B, I would call it 'Plan Befuddled," she said of Boehner's suggestion, adding that the measure cannot pass both houses of Congress.

'It's a tactic, but it's not a serious proposal," she said.

Republicans have pointed out that Pelosi herself suggested in May that tax rates should be maintained for all earners under $1 million, the same threshold that Boehner offered today.

Pelosi said Tuesday that her own proposal was in part a way to "smoke out" the opposition in getting Republicans to agree to at least some rate hikes, a move that they have now made in -- Pelosi argues -- a victory for the president.

"I'm glad he's taking up some of my suggestions," she said of Boehner. 'My next suggestion would be to put something on the table - as we were suggesting then to smoke out the Republicans - at what level would you raise the rates on the wealthiest people in this country? Not 'would you raise them at a million dollars?' That was the point of that exercise."

Updated 11:38 a.m. -- House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will introduce "Plan B" legislation to extend the Bush-era tax rates for those making $1 million and below as a backstop for the "fiscal cliff" talks. But Democrats have rejected the plan, saying that it cannot pass the Senate and does not "ask enough" of top earners. 

The proposal, which Boehner described as a less desirable alternative to a larger "balanced" deal with the White House, would mean that rates would go up for the highest earners, while taxes would remain at current levels for the majority of Americans. President Barack Obama had originally called for tax rates to increase at a lower threshold, for those households earning over $250,000 per year; his administration made a new offer to Republicans last night raising that threshold to $400,000.

"I continue to have hope that we can reach a broader agreement with the White House that would reduce spending as well as have revenues on the table," Boehner said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "I think it would be better for our country, but at this point, having a backup plan to make sure that as few American taxpayers are affected by this increase as possible ... is the right course of action for us." 

Boehner continued to criticize the president's overall offer as too light on spending cuts. "What we've offered meets the definition of 'balanced,' but the president is not there yet," he said.  

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement that Boehner's alternative still "doesn't ask enough" of top earners. 

Obama "is not willing to accept a deal that doesn’t ask enough of the very wealthiest in taxes and instead shifts the burden to the middle class and seniors," Carney said. "The Speaker’s “Plan B” approach doesn’t meet this test because it can’t pass the Senate and therefore will not protect middle class families, and does little to address our fiscal challenges with zero spending cuts."

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, arrives for a closed-door meeting with House Republicans as he negotiates with President Obama to avert the fiscal cliff, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also shot down the House plan as a non-starter, arguing that it cannot pass both chambers of Congress. 

"Speaker Boehner's 'plan B' is the farthest thing from a balanced approach," Reid said in a statement. "It will not protect middle class families because it cannot pass both Houses of Congress. The Senate bill is the only 'plan B' that can be signed into law and prevent taxes from rising by $2,200 on the average middle-class family." 

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck retorted that the president's rejection of the alternative plan "defies common sense." 

"After spending months saying we must ask for more from millionaires and billionaires, how can they reject a plan that does exactly that?" he said. "By once again moving the goal posts, the President is threatening every American family with higher taxes."

A Republican leadership aide said earlier Tuesday that the second-track plan to prevent tax increases for most Americans does not mean that negotiations between the speaker and the president have stalled.   Both sides say that they are hopeful that a larger deal can be struck, and talks continue between the White House and GOP. 

But action on the tax cut extension for all but the highest earners would provide a second path to prevent tax increases after the first of the year that could shake the American economy. 

Boehner said that the "Plan B" bill is likely to see action on the floor later this week. It will not address the automatic defense cuts - or "sequestration" --  that are part of the larger fiscal cliff puzzle, he said. 

Asked by NBC's Luke Russert about the effect of the Newtown school shootings last week on partisan wrangling over the cliff, Boehner acknowledged the effect the tragedy has had on the American people. 

"It's not a time to put Americans through more stress," he said.  

NBC's Carrie Dann contributed to this report. 

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, met Monday morning at the White House in their continued efforts to reach a deal on the impending fiscal cliff.

"The president and the speaker are meeting at the White House to continue their discussions about the fiscal cliff and balanced deficit reduction," a spokesman for Boehner said, declining to release any further information about the talks.

The Republican's trip to the White House came after reports this weekend suggesting Boehner had offered increased tax rates on millionaires and a one-year extension in the nation's debt limit. Those proposals, if accurate, would represent some concessions to Obama on the question of how to best resolve the combination of tax hikes and spending cuts set to take place at the end of this year.

Talks between Republicans and Obama appeared stalemated for much of last week, as Boehner and Obama each made and rejected new offers from the other.

While the new NBC News poll shows that most Americans want Republicans and Democrats to make a deal in the budget negotiations, NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro explain that some Republicans are hesitant to give in because of potential primary challenges.

Thanks Amy B. Portland, ME for the question!

Edited by NBC's Matt Loffman.

TRANSCRIPT:

MONTANARO:  I'm Domenico Montanaro, and this is Inside the Boiler Room.  I'm here with my colleague Mark Murray.  And Mark, Amy B. from Portland, Maine, asks, "The general perception is, if we go over the fiscal cliff, the blame will rest with House Republicans.  My question is, why don't Republican leaders sound even the tiniest bit conciliatory towards the President?" 

MURRAY: Well there's I think one simple answer to Amy why there is a lot of Republican resistance to cutting a deal, and that has to do with Republican primaries.  That these folks are looking over their shoulders and saying, 'We see a lot of the same poll numbers that are on the NBC News Wall Street Journal poll that show people want compromise.  They actually want the fact that you end up raising the rates on the wealthiest of income.'  But they also see if they actually cut a deal, they could end up losing their jobs.  And this is even a calculation for House Speaker John Boehner.  If actually completely ends up caving in on almost everything the White House wants, does he even remain Speaker?  So that's a very delicate situation for the Republican Party.

MONTANARO:  Yeah, there are a lot of delicate balances that they have to make.  I do think, though, that Republicans would say that they have been more conciliatory because in 2011, they said that rates, or revenue, was off the table.  Well now they're saying, and John Boehner would say to his great peril because of the speakership, that he's put revenue on the table.  Now that's not raising tax rates. 

MURRAY: Right. 

MONTANARO: Which I think is Amy's point that there's broad support  for raising the tax rates on the top two percent.  But I think Republicans anyway would say that they've been more conciliatory on revenue. 

MURRAY: Right.  And our NBC Wall Street Journal poll actually asks and finds that a majority of the public, 56%, would actually blame both sides equally.  Though, there is a percentage, 24% would blame Boehner and the Republicans more.  Just 19% would blame President Obama.  But when you look at the rest of our poll, it does show that President Obama does seem to have a broad mandate for the things that Democrats are calling for in this budget standoff. 

MONTANARO: Well, but anytime Republicans will see that there's even the tiniest sliver of hope for, within a poll, they're going to use that to go with the ideology that they believe to be able to say, 'See, we don't really have to completely give in.'

Voters looking for signs of progress toward a deal to resolve the fiscal cliff got none on Thursday, as congressional leaders appeared as far apart as ever.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

House Speaker John Boehner leaves after his weekly news briefing in the Capitol Visitors Center at the U.S. Capitol December 13, 2012 in Washington, DC.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., each held press conferences to outline their positions on the fiscal cliff. And both party leaders appeared as unyielding as ever in their positions.

Boehner again urged President Barack Obama to issue a new plan to outline spending cuts, and he castigated the idea of raising income tax rates.

And Pelosi said Republicans must "get real," arguing that Congress must "come to some agreement in the next couple of days or the very beginning of next week for us to have engineered our way to a solution."

Lawmakers and Obama must reach an agreement before Dec. 31 to forestall the cocktail of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to take effect unless Congress acts.

The level of spending cuts and whether tax rates should be increased continue to ensnare negotiations. But as Congress careens toward the end-of-year deadline -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., warned Thursday of work around the holidays -- the public posturing continues to highlight the differences that persist between Obama and congressional Republicans.

"We made a reasonable offer. It's now up to the White House to show us how their way to cut spending will give us the balanced approach that the president has talked about for weeks," Boehner said.

Amid additional speculation that striking a deal with Obama that raises takes would imperil his position, the Republican speaker also shrugged off the notion that he was concerned with retaining power.

"I'm not concerned about my job as speaker," he said. "What I'm concerned about is doing the right things for our kids and grandkids."

An overwhelming majority of Americans want Congress and the Obama White House to reach a deal featuring both tax increases and spending cuts to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, according to the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Click here for full results from the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (pdf)

In fact, majorities of Democrats, Republicans and political independents each support such a deal.

Yet respondents are split over whether any kind of agreement can be reached, and nearly seven in 10 believe that the coming year will feature Democrats and Republicans in Congress showing little willingness to come to an agreement on important matters.

Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, says the public is sending this one-word message to Washington: compromise.

“Doing something trumps doing nothing,” Hart said.

Related: Boehner: 'Serious differences' separate GOP from Obama

The survey – conducted a month after November’s election – also shows a positive uptick in opinion toward President Barack Obama, and more negative views about defeated GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and the Republican Party. The poll also finds that a majority of Americans now support gay marriage.

‘Hints of a thaw’

According to the poll, a combined 68 percent of Americans say that the fiscal cliff – the looming combination of tax increases and spending cuts set to take place at the beginning of next year if nothing is done – is either a “very serious” or “fairly serious” problem.

A similar two-thirds of respondents are willing to accept an increase in taxes or cuts in federal government programs they care about to reach an agreement to avoid the problem.

Asked another way, 65 percent say leaders in Congress should find a compromise to reduce the budget deficit, even if that means Democrats would need to accept targeted spending cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and that Republicans would need to accept targeted increases in tax rates.

By comparison, just 28 percent believe that leaders should stick to their traditional positions on the deficit – even if that means Congress goes over the fiscal cliff, triggering those automatic spending cuts and tax increases.

“There are hints of a thaw here, compared to previous data we’ve seen,” McInturff says.

Indeed, for the first time in the poll, a majority of Republicans (59 percent) want GOP leaders in the House and Senate to make compromises in order to gain consensus in the current budget debate.

Previously, in 2011, majorities of Republicans said they preferred GOP leaders to stick to their positions rather than make compromises.

And the percentage of Democrats who favor compromise on this question (70 percent) is now at an all-time high in the survey.

Who’s to blame if there isn’t a deal? Everyone

Yet the public is split – 48 percent of respondents are optimistic, and 48 percent are pessimistic – over whether Congress will be able to reach consensus to avoid the fiscal cliff. And another 69 percent believe that the next year on Capitol Hill will be marked by division and little willingness to compromise.

If there is no compromise on the fiscal cliff and the automatic tax increases and spending cuts go into effect at the beginning of next year, 24 percent say they will blame congressional Republicans more, while 19 percent will point the finger at Obama and congressional Democrats.

But a majority of respondents (56 percent) say they’ll blame both sides equally.

Still, twice as many Americans say they trust the president more in handling this fiscal situation (38 percent) than House Speaker John Boehner and the congressional Republicans (19 percent).

And significant majorities believe Obama holds a clear mandate from the election on issues related to this subject:

• 68 percent say he has a mandate on cutting taxes for families earning less than $250,000 per year
• 65 percent say he has a mandate on reducing the deficit by both increasing taxes on the wealthy and reducing federal spending
• And 59 percent say he has a mandate on eliminating the Bush-era tax cuts for household income over $250,000 a year.

Obama’s lift vs. the GOP’s decline

Speaking of Obama, the poll shows an uptick in his numbers after his victory in last month’s presidential election.

Fifty-three percent of adults approve of his overall job performance, and 49 percent approve of his handling of the economy – higher marks on these questions than at any time during the 2012 campaign.

Another 53 percent say they feel either “optimistic and confident” or “satisfied and hopeful” Obama will do a good job as president, which is up three points from Oct. 2012.

“Any president has a little bit of a lift heading into the first few months of any new term in office,” McInturff, the GOP pollster, says.

But if Obama is getting a lift after the election, the Republican Party is seeing a further decline.

The GOP’s favorable/unfavorable rating in the poll now stands at 30 percent/45 percent (minus-15 points), which is down from 36 percent/43 percent (minus-7) right before the election.

That’s compared with the Democratic Party’s 44 percent/35 percent rating (plus-9 points).

What’s more, asked to give a word or short phrase to describe the Republican Party, 65 percent offered a negative comment, including more than half of Republicans.

Some of the responses: “Bad,” “weak,” “negative,” “uncompromising,” “need to work together,” “broken,” “disorganized” and “lost.”

By contrast, 37 percent gave negative descriptions of the Democratic Party, while 35 percent were positive.

“Republicans have gone off the image cliff,” says Hart, the Democratic pollster.

“Elections have consequences,” McInturff adds about the GOP. “And among those consequences is the cost of losing.”

The consequences of losing also exist for Romney, whom Obama defeated in November.

Romney’s favorable/unfavorable rating in the poll is 35 percent/44 percent (minus-9 points), down from his 43 percent/44 percent score (minus-1) before the election. Much of that drop comes from Republicans and conservatives. 

Majority supports same-sex marriage

Finally, for the first time ever in the NBC/WSJ poll, a majority of respondents – 51 percent – support same-sex marriage.

That percentage in support is up from 30 percent in 2004, 41 percent in 2009 and 49 percent in March 2012, demonstrating how quickly public opinion on this issue has changed in just eight years.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Dec. 6-9 of 1,000 adults (including 300 cell phone-only respondents), and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.

House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that "serious differences" continue to separate Republicans from President Barack Obama on work toward resolving the impending "fiscal cliff" at the end of this month.

Speaking this morning on Capitol Hill, the Ohio Republican said that his conversation Tuesday with Obama was "open and honest," but that a new proposal put forth by the White House could not muster enough support to pass through Congress.

"The president and I had a deliberate call yesterday and we spoke openly about the differences we face," Boehner told reporters following a meeting with fellow Republicans. "The president has called for $1.4 trillion dollars in revenue, that cannot pass the House or the Senate."

Two sources familiar with the Obama-Boehner call yesterday described it to NBC News as a "tense" conversation. Amid dueling, new proposals, Boehner proposed a permanent extension of existing tax rates for the wealthy, a Democratic source familiar with the call told NBC's Kristen Welker.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, who spoke with President Barack Obama yesterday, arrives for a closed-door meeting with the GOP caucus, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Sources confirmed Tuesday that the administration's new offer included $1.4 trillion in new revenue and $600 billion in spending cuts -- slightly less revenue and slightly more cuts than Obama had initially proposed.

The level of spending cuts and the method of raising new revenue -- along with the manner in which savings might be found in entitlement programs -- have confounded lawmakers and the White House for the better part of the last two years. Obama has insisted that higher tax rates for the wealthy, a priority on which he campaigned, are essential to a final deal. Republicans argue that enough revenue can be raised through the elimination of tax loopholes and deductions.

Still, Boehner did try to publicly project some optimism as to whether a deal could be reached before the end of the year, when the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that constitute the fiscal cliff are set to take effect. He counseled lawmakers to plan carefully around the holidays and to expect to return to work shortly after Christmas.

"Listen I was born with a glass half full, I remain the most optimistic person in this town but we got some serious differences," he said.

NBC's Kristen Welker and Luke Russert contributed reporting.

Fiscal talks: one step forward, two steps back… Cautiously optimistic vs. cautiously pessimistic… It’s NBC/WSJ poll day!!!... What does labor do now after Michigan passes right-to-work legislation into law?... And Haley narrows down her appointment list to five names.

Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks about the economy at the Daimler Detroit Diesel engine plant Dec. 10, 2012 in Redford, Mi.

*** One step forward, two steps back: That’s probably the best way to view what has transpired in the fiscal negotiations between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner over the past 72 hours. The step forward: Sunday’s meeting between the two men. The two steps back: yesterday’s news of dueling counteroffers, which really didn’t go anywhere. On Monday, the White House sent over a proposal that lowered its revenue target from $1.6 trillion to $1.4 trillion, NBC’s Luke Russert confirms. The White House also reportedly threw in increasing spending cuts from $400 billion to $600 billion, as well as a promise to achieve corporate-tax reform. Yet that counteroffer is what prompted Boehner to take to the House floor. “Where are the president’s spending cuts?” Boehner asked, per the Washington Post. “The longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff.” Then Boehner’s side made its counterproposal, which essentially was the same as its original proposal -- $800 billion in revenue. That was their way of telling the White House, “We’re not impressed with your counteroffer.”

*** Cautiously optimistic vs. cautiously pessimistic: So where do things stand? We saw a little bit of negotiating movement, but not nearly what either side thinks it needs to begin feeling that real progress was made. That’s the bad news. The good news that is both sides are still talking (Obama still spoke by phone with Boehner last night). More importantly, neither side is PUBLICLY trashing the specifics of either proposal. If that happens, then you know things are bad. Talk to insiders involved in the talks and you get this sense: The White House is cautiously optimistic about a deal, while House Republicans are cautiously pessimistic. So we still have a ways to go. Meanwhile, for his part, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is also calling on the White House to focus on spending cuts as much as the taxes. "The president seems to think that if all he talks about are taxes, and that's all reporters write about, somehow the rest of us will magically forget that government spending is completely out of control, and that he himself has been insisting on balance," he said, per the AP.

*** NBC/WSJ poll day! What does the American public think of the fiscal-cliff negotiations? Does it want higher tax rates on the wealthy, more spending cuts, or both? Also, what are Americans thoughts about President Obama one month after his re-election? And how do they view Mitt Romney and the Republican Party? For the answers to these questions, tune into NBC’s “Nightly News” -- or click on to NBCNews.com -- beginning at 6:30 pm ET. By the way, here are two other polls that are out today. Washington Post/ABC poll: Voters are split, 47%-46% on how Obama’s handling the fiscal cliff negotiations, but they overwhelmingly disapprove Boehner’s handling them, 24%-54% disapprove. And Bloomberg: “President Barack Obama won the public argument over taxes so decisively that almost half of Republicans now say he has an election mandate to raise rates on the rich.”

*** What does labor do now? Here’s the Detroit News on yesterday’s action-packed day in Michigan: “Gov. Rick Snyder's signature Tuesday made Michigan the nation's 24th right-to-work state on a day both sides of the politically charged labor issue predicted would change the course of its history… Snyder's action capped a drama-filled day at the Capitol that put the birthplace of the modern labor movement in the national spotlight as an estimated 12,500 right-to-work advocates and protesters swarmed the capital.” A separate Detroit News piece notes that labor and its allies essentially have two options to overturn the new law. First, they have filed legal actions charging that the process violated the state’s Open Meetings Act. “Opponents said quick passage of the bills in the Legislature — outside the normal committee process and without public hearings — was unconstitutional because citizens didn't have a chance to weigh in.” Second, critics say they could overturn it by passing a voter-initiated law, which would require getting 258,000 signatures to get on the ballot. And, of course, there’s 2014, when Snyder is up for re-election.

*** Haley’s final five: NBC’s Ali Weinberg yesterday confirmed a report that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has whittled her list of possibilities to fill Sen. Jim DeMint’s Senate seat to these five candidates: Rep. Tim Scott, Rep. Trey Gowdy, former state Attorney General Henry McMaster, former South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford, and Catherine Templeton, who heads state Department of Health and Environmental Control. Among these five names, Scott has to be the odds-on favorite, while Jenny Sanford (!!!!) is the buzzy name. But don’t lose sight on McMaster, who quickly endorsed Haley after he failed to make the 2010 gubernatorial run-off. MSNBC’s Michael LaRosa reminds us that Jenny Sanford is no ordinary political spouse (or ex-spouse). “She has confronted the challenges of South Carolina's rough and tumble political world before, starting in 1994 when she managed her husband's upstart campaign for Congress proving to be the ultimate Cinderella story for a candidate and manager with no prior political experience. Jenny went on to manage Sanford's winning congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.”

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) sent a new offer on Tuesday afternoon to President Barack Obama in hopes of reaching a deal to resolve the impending fiscal cliff.

Specific details are scarce, but the proposal apparently was made as a counter-offer to something the White House had proposed over the last few days. A GOP aide said the White House plan offered $1.4 trillion in new revenue, but the GOP still not moved from offering $800 billion in revenue.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told NBC News the following:

"We sent the White House a counter-offer that would achieve tax and entitlement reform to solve our looming debt crisis and create more American jobs.  As the Speaker said today, we're still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the "balanced approach" he promised the American people.  The longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff."

Since this is a new offer, it’s assumed to be different from the one put forward last week by the GOP that called for $800 billion dollars in new revenue through closing tax loopholes and deductions, along with an additional $600 billion in savings through cuts to entitlements.

A GOP aide opined to NBC News that the president must move more quickly on “the spending side” before any deal could hope to be accomplished. A major sticking point to date has involved how much ground Republicans would give on tax rates for the wealthy.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, took to the House floor Tuesday to urge President Barack Obama to “get serious” and offer a plan to resolve the impending fiscal cliff.

Following a weekend meeting between the president and Capitol Hill’s top Republican, Boehner said that a deal to address the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set for the end of this month continued to elude lawmakers.

Boehner placed the blame squarely with Obama, whom the speaker again demanded produce a new version of his plan.

“If the president doesn’t agree with our approach, he’s got an obligation to put forward a plan that can pass both chambers of the Congress,” Boehner said. “Because right now, the American people have to be scratching their heads and wondering: When is the president going to get serious?”

The main sticking point involves taxes, and the question of whether tax rates should be allowed to go up for the wealthiest of Americans. Obama has demanded that tax rates go up on high earners, possibly to the levels they were at during President Bill Clinton’s administration. Republicans argue that they should instead raise revenue through eliminating tax deductions and loopholes, thereby sparing some small-business owners whose revenue is taxed as income.

But there’s also the broader question of whether an extension of the debt limit should be included in the deal, along with Republicans’ demand that Obama specify the areas in which he’s willing to make cuts.

“A lot of people know that the president and I met on Sunday. It was a nice meeting, it was cordial. But we’re still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the ‘balanced’ approach that he promised the American people,” Boehner said.

The Ohio Republican added: “Where are the president’s spending cuts? And the longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff.”

Still, Boehner expressed optimism that Republicans could still reach an agreement with Obama before the Dec. 31 deadline.