Ayotte hopes Congress will avoid fiscal cliff

Addressing small business owners in Manchester Monday, Senator Kelly Ayotte said she hopes Congress will take action to avoid the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that will take effect in January.

“Please know that I am going to do everything that I can to make sure that as we get to this fiscal cliff, I’m hoping we do it… unlike we don’t do anything in Washington, we wait ‘til the last minute, I think we should be working on this issue now.”

The C.B.O. has estimated that absent action from Congress, 388 billion dollars will leave the economy in the next fiscal year. Ayotte says ideally, she’d like to see sweeping tax reform. But acknowledged, that’s not likely to happen given the current political climate and during an election year.