President Obama aimed to keep the pressure on Congress to act, taping an appearance for "Meet the Press" to air Sunday morning. And at a certain point it is very important for Republicans in Congress to be willing to say, "We understand we're not going to get 100 percent. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "s spokesman Don Stewart responded to the president's remarks on Sunday by saying, "While the President was taping those discordant remarks yesterday, Sen. McConnell was in the office working to bring Republicans and Democrats together on a solution." Sen. Charles Schumer, the Senate's third-ranking Democrat, said on Sunday that the odds of striking a deal to avert the fiscal cliff are a little better than even, but he cautioned that there have been "no breakthroughs." "While an agreement is hardly a certainty, I wouldn't rule it out," Schumer said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the upper chamber, didn't disagree. "If we are not able to reach an agreement, it will be dire," Kyl said on the same program. Kyl said reaching a deal may depend "upon whether President Obama is willing to compromise this sort of fixation with raising taxes above anybody making more than $200,000 a year."