Obama softens tax-the-rich demand

Barack Obama has softened his demand for higher taxes for top earners and agreed to curtail future inflation adjustments for those on Social Security pensions to speed up talks with Republican rivals on avoiding a "fiscal cliff".

Officials familiar with the talks said the manoeuvring was aimed at reaching an agreement to rein in deficit spending before an automatic year-end increase in taxes for nearly all wage-earners strikes, as well as deep spending cuts in defence and domestic programmes across the US government.
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