Barack Obama On 'Meet the Press': President Addresses Guns, Fiscal Cliff

Obama spoke less than 48 hours before the deadline for the U.S. government to find a way to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff," and thusly the ongoing fight in Washington over the crucial issue consumed much of the pre-recorded conversation with David Gregory.

"I remain an optimist," Obama said when asked if he believed a deal could be reached on the fiscal cliff, but he tempered that by stating that "the fact that it's not happening is an indication of how far some factions in the Republican Party have gone" away from popular centrist positions like support for tax cuts for the middle class.

Obama predicted that one of two things will happen in regard to the fiscal cliff. The first possibility, he said, is that "we're going to see an agreement within the next 48 hours" that will keep the country from going over the fiscal cliff, therefore allowing for the continuation the tax breaks, unemployment benefits and other economy-boosting measures that will lapse if a deal is not reached by the end of the year.

The second possibility Obama laid out is that Congress will not be able to come to an agreement that satisfies both sides of the aisle, and the nation will go over the cliff. But even that should not be a source of too much despair, the President said, as if it indeed does not pass in time, then next year "the first bill will be to cut taxes on middle-class families."

Speaking on the topic of gun control, Obama drove home just how much he was personally moved by the shocking display of violence that left 20 schoolchildren and six adults dead earlier this month when 20-year-old Adam Lanza went on a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"That was the worst day of my presidency," he told Gregory.

He went on to explain that he supports a range of gun control proposals including an assault weapons ban, bans on oversized clips, and background checks for gun purchasers. But Obama declined to outright denounce the NRA's proposal to put an armed security guard in every American school, though he said he does not believe that such a move would alone be enough to solve the issue of gun violence in the United States.

He added that he believes that if Americans were "shook up enough" by the Newtown massacre, then the will and public support will be there to do big things to address gun violence.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/barack-obama-meet-press-president-addresses-guns-fiscal-cliff-981282

csco big bend national park leon russell meredith vieira prop 8 maria menounos proposition 8