WASHINGTON, USA — President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner remain far apart and are, in public at least, refusing to budge in negotiations that would pull the US economy back from the January 1 “fiscal cliff,” big income tax increases for all Americans and huge spending cuts that threaten to push the country back into economic recession.

Both sides have laid out positions unacceptable to the other, a common bargaining tactic, but they are showing no real signs of giving ground with less than three weeks remaining before the deadline. Obama campaigned on raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, to which Republicans object, and insists on that as a path to reducing the country’s spiraling budget deficit. Boehner instead wants changes to the tax code, eliminating loopholes and deductions. There is agreement that the government also needs to reduce spending, but neither side is ready to get specific.

The Federal Reserve is expected this week to announce a new bond-buying plan to support the country’s economy, but the chairman of the central bank, Ben Bernanke, has warned that if the economy fell off a “broad fiscal cliff” the Fed probably couldn’t offset the shock.

The US faces the fiscal cliff because tax rate cuts that were put in place during the administration of former President George W Bush expire at the end of the year. The pending across-the-board reductions in government spending, which will slice money out of everything from social programs to the military, were put in place last year as an incentive to both parties to find ways to cut spending. That legislation grew out of the two parties’ inability in 2011 to agree to a tax and spending program that would have taken a big bite out of the deficit.

Compounding the pressure to avoid the fiscal cliff is the coincidental expiration of extended government benefits for the long-term unemployed and the expiration of temporary cuts in the payroll tax that funds the government’s Social Security pension program.

On Monday, Obama made another campaign-style trip, this one to the heartland of the US auto industry, to build grassroots support for his promise to raise taxes on wealthy Americans as part of his plan for reducing the government deficit.

Obama warned workers at a diesel engine factory that their taxes will rise on January 1 without action by the Congress. “That’s a hit you can’t afford to take,” he declared.

He spoke one day after meeting privately at the White House with Boehner. The White House did not dispute that the president was prepared to modestly scale back his initial demand for US$1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over a decade, twice as much as Boehner has offered.

Expressing frustration with the talks, Boehner’s office said, “We continue to wait for the president to identify the spending cuts he’s willing to make as part of the ‘balanced’ approach he promised the American people.”

Many Republicans agree that Obama and the Democrats hold most of the political leverage, given the president’s re-election last month after a campaign in which he said the wealthy should pay more in taxes. Obama wants to boost the tax rate on individuals earning more than US$200,000 a year and for couples with annual income above US$250,000.

If anything, the president has toughened his demands in recent days, insisting not only that tax rates must rise, but also that Congress give him and future presidents the authority to raise the government’s borrowing limit without prior approval by lawmakers.

Boehner, while claiming his own election mandate for the Republican majority in the House, has said he was prepared to buck many in his party and support additional tax revenue as part of a fiscal cliff agreement. He has not yet ruled out giving the president his way, and some Republicans have said they are prepared to do so — encouraging Democrats to say they anticipate the speaker will eventually yield.

The White House meeting Sunday was the first private negotiation session between Obama and Boehner since the November 6 election. Obama and Boehner agreed not to release details of their conversation, but aides said it proved lines of communication remain open.