Obama promises 97 percent of Americans won't see taxes rise

 WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (Xinhua)-- U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday said the most important step now was to promise Americans 97 percent of them won't see taxes rise as the fiscal¹ cliff loomed².

Obama stressed in a White House news conference that he was open to make compromise and open to new ideas.

"Our economy is still recovering from a very deep and damaging crisis, so our top priority has to be jobs and growth," noted³ Obama.

After the elections, Washington is still much the same as it was before, with the White House and Senate under the Democrats⁴' control, leaving the House of Representatives at the GOP's hand. If both parties cannot reach agreement on issues like tax increases and spending cuts, a corresponding reduction as steep as a cliff in the federal budget will take place at the very beginning of 2013.

If "Congress fails to act by the end of this year, everybody's taxes will automatically go up," warned Obama. "We cannot afford to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. What we can do is make sure that middle-class taxes don't go up... If we get that in place, we are actually removing half of the fiscal cliff."

Obama admitted it was not possible for the Republicans simply to adopt his plan and said that "not everybody gets 100 percent of what they want, and not everybody is going to be perfectly⁵ happy.

1 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

2 loomed   

v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• A dark shape loomed up ahead of us. 一个黑糊糊的影子隐隐出现在我们的前面。
• The prospect of war loomed large in everyone's mind. 战事将起的庞大阴影占据每个人的心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。