Wednesday, December 12, 2012--5:40p.m.
MADISON--As the fight over how to avoid the fiscal cliff continues in Washington D.C., President Obama is taking his case to the local level. "He made the point that he is working with the Congress, that we're at a point now where the critical decisions are in the hands of just a few people and that's House Republicans," said Madison Mayor Paul Soglin.

Soglin said the president met with a group of about 100 mayors and local leaders this morning, including himself on a conference call.
"Some cities and counties had elected officials actually in the Roosevelt room at the White House during the call," said Soglin. "Some communities it was just the mayor on the phone and others did what we did which was had community leaders both from private sector and the city council joining in."

The mayor said he got the invite about a week ago. He said going to Washington was out of the question for him, so he and other leaders listened-in from here. "It all had to do with the cliff and the message is real simple: we have got to move forward in preserving these tax breaks for middle-income families," he said.

Soglin said the president did take three or four questions from the group. He also said he and the other Madison leaders intend to appeal to the public with the president's message. "We're working on drafting a letter on behalf of the ten of us, which we're hoping to circulate to newspapers, to radio and T.V. stations," he said.