Obama Makes Case For Tax Hikes In Fiscal Cliff Push To Business Leaders

President Barack Obama spoke to business leaders at the quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable in Washington on Wednesday, arguing for tax hikes in his latest fiscal cliff push.

"We're not insisting on rates out of spite or partisan bickering," Obama said, noting that "we can probably solve this in about a week" if Republicans agree to a tax hike.

"It's not that tough," Obama said.

The AP reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is warning Republicans not to create another fight over the nation's debt ceiling, telling business leaders it's "not a game that I will play."

Obama says in remarks to the Business Roundtable that he has heard of reports that Republicans may be willing to agree to higher tax rates on the wealthy and then come back in 2013 with more leverage to extract spending cuts in exchange for raising the government's borrowing limit.

Obama says that approach is "a bad strategy for America." He tells the group of chief executives that he wants to break that habit before it even starts.