President Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have cast the GOP as being intransigent on a new tax and spending deal to avert a so-called fiscal cliff, saying the Republicans "keep on finding ways to say no as opposed to finding ways to say yes."
Meanwhile Democrat Keith Ellison vowed to continue to say no to any efforts to cut safety-net programs like Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid -- all top targets of GOP negotiators.
"We don't have to sacrifice the interests of the most vulnerable in order to solve our budgetary problems," Ellison told Minnesota reporters Wednesday, adding that he would not go along with cuts just to prove his bipartisan bone fides.
"It translates to people who already have very little, to get by with even less so that people who have a lot can keep even more," he said.
