財政懸崖逼近之際，奧巴馬將返回華盛頓

U.S. President Barack Obama is cutting short his vacation in ((the Pacific state of)) Hawaii and will return to Washington to resume talks with congressional leaders aimed at reaching agreement on a deficit reduction package before the year ends.

The White House says Mr. Obama will leave Wednesday and is expected to arrive back in Washington early Thursday.

Early last week, the president said he and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were relatively close to an agreement on a compromise to avert what is being called a "fiscal cliff" -- $500 billion in mandated spending cuts and tax increases that would affect almost all American workers starting January 1. But by the end of last week, those efforts were in disarray as lawmakers fled Washington for their Christmas holiday break.美國總統奧巴馬將縮短在夏威夷的假期，返回華盛頓，再度與國會領袖們進行磋商，爭取在年底之前就一項削減預算赤字方案達成協議。

白宮說，奧巴馬將於星期三離開夏威夷，預計他將在星期四清晨返回華盛頓。

上星期初，奧巴馬錶示他和貝納已經相對接近於就避免財政懸崖的妥協方案達成協議。所謂“財政懸崖”，就是從明年１月１日啓動的削減５千億美元開支以及對幾乎所有美國工作人員增稅。但截至上週末，由於國會議員們因聖誕度假而離開華盛頓，有關努力都沒有結果。