If Americans were looking to Washington on Friday to unveil a bold new solution for averting the fiscal crisis, they didn't get it.
President Obama, at a last-ditch meeting with congressional leaders just days before sweeping tax hikes take effect, presented a recycled version of the scaled-back proposal he pitched last week.
There was little sign of a breakthrough, as lawmakers left shortly after 4 p.m. Stocks on Wall Street dove at the close of the day, amid fears that the tax increases along with steep spending cuts will hit Jan. 1.
According to one source familiar with the White House meeting, Obama pushed lawmakers to either bring his proposal for a scaled-down bill to a vote or put forward a counterproposal of their own.
As she returned to Capitol Hill, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested Obama is trying to get the Senate to act first. "I think it moved us forward," she said of the meeting, without offering specifics about what was discussed.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it "very constructive."
"We hope it will bear fruit," the Democratic leader said, though he cautioned there was "no concrete proposal."
The president's plan is a far cry from the kind of "grand bargain" lawmakers were shooting for just a few weeks ago -- something that would narrow the deficit, overhaul the tax code and set the country on a course to curb its entitlement spending, all while averting massive tax hikes and spending cuts.
Instead, Obama wants a bill that primarily nixes the tax hikes for families making under $250,000. He has pushed that particular provision for months, though Republicans have adamantly opposed raising taxes on those making above $250,000. Obama's proposal would also extend unemployment benefits for roughly 2 million people expected to lose them next year, and deal with "other outstanding issues."
Obama referred to those other issues last week when he called for laying "the groundwork for future growth and deficit reduction," which presumably would be a commitment to return next year and draft broader tax and entitlement reform.
The latter idea, though, would stir deep skepticism in Congress -- the last big budget deal in the summer of 2011 ended precisely with such a commitment, which in turn ended in failure and the fiscal crisis facing the country today.
The immediate challenge for negotiators, though, will be to craft a plan that does enough to spare most Americans a big hike without doing so much as to complicate the bill's passage. There are a host of expiring provisions next year -- from Medicare rates to doctors to payroll tax cuts -- that some lawmakers hoped to address before the end of the month. The more items added to the bill, the trickier it gets to pass it.
Lawmakers have been hesitant to predict whether Congress will be able to arrive at any solution.
Earlier Friday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said: "I think it all comes down" to the White House meeting.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., continued to push for a "grand bargain," though that does not appear to be what Obama is pushing in the near-term.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, ahead of the meeting, called on leaders to "get serious."
"We are obviously running out of time here," he said.
Lawmakers effectively have fewer than two working days to pass legislation. While the Senate is in session, the House does not return until Sunday afternoon.
Between now and Jan. 1, Congress has just a handful of options for sparing taxpayers. Aside from the scaled-back "Plan C" being offered by Obama, lawmakers could simply pass a short-term extension of current rates -- buying more time to work out an agreement. Lawmakers might have to do this even if they reach an agreement by the weekend -- because of the sheer time it would take to write that bill and bring it to the floor.
Or Congress could let the tax hikes happen, only to retroactively deal with them next year. The Boston Globe reported Friday that the IRS may delay the impact of tax hikes by holding off on telling employers to change how much they withhold from workers.
House Republican leaders, though, still want the Senate to pass their bill that extends current rates for everyone. And Senate Democratic leaders still want the House to pass their bill letting taxes rise on households making more than $250,000.
The latter, though, would probably only pass in the House with a bloc of mostly Democrats. According to Politico, Boehner told his rank-and-file Thursday that he's "not interested" in passing a bill that way.
Fox News' Ed Henry and Chad Pergram and Fox Business Network's Rich Edson contributed to this report.