President Barack Obama: House Speaker John Boehner

Obama Dept: WASHINGTON - House Republicans' hard line against higher tax rates for upper-income earners leaves re-elected President Barack Obama with a tough, core decision: Does he pick a fight and risk falling off a "fiscal cliff" or does he rush to compromise and risk alienating liberal Democrats?, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Obama has been silent since his victory speech early Wednesday morning, but Capitol Hill Republicans have filled the vacuum with vows to stand resolutely against any effort by the president to fulfil a campaign promise to raise the top two income tax rates to Clinton-era levels and in this Nov. 7, 2012, photo House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, talks about the elections and the unfinished business of Congress at the Capitol in Washington. President Barack Obama is setting out to leverage his re-election into legislative success in an upcoming showdown with congressional Republicans over taxes, deficits and the impending "fiscal cliff." Boehner says Republicans are willing to consider some form of higher tax revenue as part of the solution but only under what he calls "the right conditions." AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Or is there another way that will allow both sides to claim victory? (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.