US Senate in fiscal-cliff blame game

Senators bickered over who was to blame for lurching the US towards an end-of-year “fiscal cliff”, bemoaning the lack of a deal days before the deadline but bridging no differences in the debate.

With the collapse on Thursday of House of Representatives speaker John Boehner’s plan to allow tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes, Senator Joe Lieberman said “it’s the first time that I feel it’s more likely we’ll go over the cliff than not” – meaning higher taxes for most Americans and painful budget cuts would be set to go ahead.