Obama campaigns for fiscal cliff fix amid stalemate in Congress

US President Barack Obama visited Middle-Class Americans in Virginia on Thursday to pressure Republicans to end a stalemate on how to resolve spending and tax issues by the year's end. The White House confirmed Obama's visit to a middle-class family in Virginia to explain his proposed plan to avert a so-called "fiscal cliff", a series of tax hikes and spending cuts set to go into effect next year. The Obama administration wants Congress to raise the U.S.'s borrowing limit by year-end, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday. "We...expect Congress to deal with the debt ceiling as part of an end-of-the-year deal," Carney said at the daily briefing. Republican lawmakers have rejected a White House idea to extend a procedure that allowed the debt limit to be raised three times in the past two years. Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats jockeyed in the Senate. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell prevented a simple majority vote on a proposal to give Obama unilateral power to raise the debt limit. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid brought the measure to the floor for consideration at the request of McConnell. But McConnell refused to permit a vote after Reid said it could pass with 51 votes in the 100-member Senate. McConnell demanded 60 votes needed for passage. Some Republicans think the fact that Congress is likely to need to raise the debt ceiling sometime in the first quarter gives them leverage in the deficit-reduction talks.