Obama, congressional leaders meet on 'fiscal cliff' U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Republican John Boehner walks to his car at White House after 'fiscal cliff' talks with President Barack Obama in Washington, DC on December 28, 2012. Higher taxes rates and budget cuts go into affect on January 1, 2013 unless a compromise is reached. WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner met with congressional leaders Friday in a last-ditch effort to avert the "fiscal cliff." The meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., began at 3:10 p.m., a White House official said. It lasted little more than an hour. Unless Congress takes action by Monday, the last day of 2012, tax rates will go up for all Americans, 2 million people receiving extended unemployment benefits will lose their stipends and severe federal spending cuts will kick in, potentially sending the U.S. economy back into recession. In advance of the meeting, McConnell said he'd review Obama's latest plan to avoid the "fiscal cliff." "We'll see what the president has to propose," McConnell said. Hopefully, there is still time for an agreement of some kind that saves the taxpayers from a wholly preventable economic crisis. Obama was expected to outline elements he thinks should be in a deal that could get majority support in both chambers of Congress, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Obama was not expected to put forward a specific bill or legislative language, the Journal said. Reid said prospects of passing even a slimmed-down bill before Monday were fading fast. Most officials said they believed any deal would most likely emerge in the Senate. Leaders in both parties told The Washington Post talks were quietly under way between aides to McConnell and senior White House officials ahead of Friday's Oval Office meeting. Reid criticized Boehner in unusually personal terms Thursday, accusing him of running the House as a "dictatorship" in which he would not bring forward legislation to avert the fiscal cliff because it might pass with broad Democratic support and only a handful of Republican votes. House GOP leaders announced late Thursday they would call members back into session Sunday, with a possible vote that evening. That scenario would occur if the cliff deadline passes with no agreement and GOP leaders bring up legislation to reverse the tax increases and spending cuts retroactively, Republicans participating in the call told the Journal. The new Congress will have more Democrats in both chambers than in the current Congress -- nine more Democrats in the House and two more in the Senate -- but Republicans will still be the majority in the House, while Democrats retain the majority in the Senate.