Obama: No fiscal cliff deal without higher tax rates for top earners President Barack Obama said that a deal to avert the fiscal cliff would not happen without higher income tax rates on the top two percent of earners in his first TV interview since his re-election. "If we're going to raise revenues that are sufficient to balance with the very tough cuts that we've already made and the further reforms in entitlements that I'm prepared to make, then we're going to have to see the rates on the top two percent go up," the president told Bloomberg television. "And we're not going to be able to get a deal without it," he continued. It's not me being stubborn -- it's not me being partisan. It's just a matter of math. He said that getting Republicans to agree to higher tax rates was more urgent than meeting with House Speaker John Boehner to hammer out the rest of the details of the plan. "I don't think that the issue right now has to do with sitting in a room," he said. Boehner led Republicans in offering a counter-proposal to Obama's own fiscal plan; the GOP proposal called for $800 billion in new revenue due to closing loopholes and deductions, though it would not increase tax rates on any Americans. "Unfortunately the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance," Obama said of Boehner's plan.