President Barack Obama once again pushed for Congress to extend Bush-era tax cuts for all income under $250,000, while pressuring Republicans to let tax rates rise for the wealthiest Americans, the New York Times reported.

Obama said he hoped the fiscal cliff issues will be resolved by the end of the year, when a series of tax increases and spending cuts are expected to take effect. The president, addressing supporters who represent middle-class taxpayers, said the goal "is to get this done before Christmas." 

 

SEE ALSO: Obama Sticking To His Guns In Fiscal Cliff Debate

GOP members in Congress have been reluctant to let the Bush tax cuts expire, but Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) broke from his party in calling for a deal to extend tax cuts for just the middle class. However, others feel that the two sides are still far apart.

More from the New York Times:

“I’m glad to see if you’ve been reading the papers lately that more and more Republicans in Congress seem to be agreeing with this idea that we should have a balanced approach,” he said.

But a prominent figure in the fiscal discussions expressed pessimism that the two sides would be able to reach an agreement to avert what is being called a fiscal cliff.

“I believe the probability is that we are going over the cliff, and I think that we will be horrible,” Erskine B. Bowles, a former White House chief of staff who served as co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s deficit reduction commission, told reporters at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. “It will be devastating to the economy.”

SEE ALSO: Approaching Fiscal Cliff Brings Worry Of Decreased Federal Aid To States

House Speaker John Boehner sounded off against Rep. Cole's remarks, according to CNBC.

"The goal here is to grow the economy and control spending," Boehner said. "You're not going to grow the economy if you raise the top 2 percent rates. It'll hurt small businesses and it'll hurt our economy, why this is not the right approach."

However, Boehner remained optimistic a deal could be reached if Democrats agree to spending cuts to avert the crisis. Although Obama has repeated the stance that the wealthy should pay more taxes, White House officials concede that cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare would have to be included in the bargain as well.

In a push to raise public awareness of what's at stake in the fiscal cliff saga, Obama urged voters to use social media to express themselves to members of Congress, NPR reported. 

SEE ALSO: White House Warns About Fiscal Cliff

The president is planning a series of campaign-style events to turn up the heat on Republicans and get them to soften their position on increasing taxes on the wealthy. He also provided supporters with the hashtag, #my2k, referring to his argument that the average middle-class family would have to pay an additional $2,200 in federal income taxes if no deal is reached.

"Call your members of Congress, write them an email, post it on their Facebook walls," Obama told his audience. "You can tweet it using the hashtag 'My2K'" Not 'Y2K' (Laughter.) 'My2K.' We figured that would make it a little easier to remember."

 

Read more of Neon Tommy's fiscal cliff coverage here.

Reach Executive Producer Danny Lee here; follow him here.