(CNN) – Democrats and Republicans addressed struggles facing middle-class families during their weekly addresses Saturday following a busy week dominated by Supreme Court judges’ arguments on health care.
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, spoke about proposals to help middle-class families, urging the opposing party to join theirs to find solutions.

Obama boosted the "Buffet Rule," a proposal to end Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy individuals, or, as Democrats describe it, would "ask some of the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share."
"Now, if this were a perfect world, we'd have unlimited resources. No one would ever have to pay any taxes, and we could spend as much as we wanted," Obama said.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Obama poked fun at himself Saturday night while delivering a joke-filled monologue at the Alfalfa Club’s annual dinner in Washington. “It is great to be here tonight, because I have about 45 more minutes on the State of the Union that I’d like to deliver tonight,” Obama announced to the crowd of Washington insiders, politicians and business elite.

The exclusive black-tie dinner was closed to press coverage, but the White House released some excerpts of the President's remarks.

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Washington (CNN) – The Obama administration will likely announce its opposition to the controversial Keystone pipeline project as early as today, according to a Democratic source briefed on the matter.

Though House Speaker John Boehner's office has not yet been informed of the White House decision, the Speaker said today, "This is not good for our country. The president wants to put this off until it's convenient for him to make a decision. That means after the next election. The fact is the American people are asking the question right now, "Where are the jobs?"

The proposed Keystone pipeline has been caught up in the Washington political discourse since Republicans inserted a clause in the payroll tax cut negotiations last fall trying to force a decision on the project within a limited time frame. The White House had tried to push the decision until 2013 after the coming presidential election.

The pipeline would run from northern Alberta in Canada down to Texas's Gulf Coast. Republicans and some unions want to push approval through for the project in favor of the job creation prospects. The administration points to environmental reviews still underway and opponents express concerns about the nation's oil dependency being further embraced in regards to not rushing a decision.

Well, the stalemate is over and President Obama can leave to join his family in Hawaii. While he was scheduled to make a statement about the payroll tax cut extensions around 12:15, he finally spoke about an hour later. They were waiting for the actual bill to arrive at the White House and then he had to sign it. The White House also tells us he signed the omnibus bill for 2012.

Check out how our friends at CNN wires have wrapped today's events:

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama signed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut Friday, ending what had been a heated political stalemate and sealing a hard-fought win for Democrats on an issue - taxes - that has historically favored the GOP.

Earlier in the day, the measure cleared the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives by unanimous consent, a procedural move allowing the measure to pass even though most members of Congress were already home for the holidays.

"This is some good news just in the nick of time," Obama said shortly before departing the White House for Hawaii. But "we have a lot more work to do. This continues to be a make-or-break moment for the middle class in this country."

Among other things, the $33 billion bill also includes a two-month extension of emergency federal unemployment benefits and the so-called "doc fix," a delay in scheduled payment reductions to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

Congress will consider a longer extension of all three measures when it reconvenes in January.

For the full story, click here.

House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday announced an agreement with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to extend the payroll tax cut for two months.  Afterwards both Speaker Boehner and President Obama released statements.

House Speaker John Boehner:

Senator Reid and I have reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators. Under the terms of our agreement, a new bill will be approved by the House that reflects the bipartisan agreement in the Senate along with new language that allows job creators to process and withhold payroll taxation under the same accounting structure that is currently in place. The Senate will join the House in immediately appointing conferees, with instructions to reach agreement in the weeks ahead on a full-year payroll tax extension. We will ask the House and Senate to approve this agreement by unanimous consent before Christmas. I thank our Members – particularly those who have remained here in the Capitol with the holidays approaching – for their efforts to enact a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut for working families.”

President Barack Obama:

For the past several weeks, I’ve stated consistently that it was critical that Congress not go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working Americans. Today, I congratulate members of Congress for ending the partisan stalemate by reaching an agreement that meets that test.

Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut – about $1,000 for the average family. That’s about $40 in every paycheck. Vital unemployment insurance will continue for millions of Americans who are looking for work. And when Congress returns, I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut and unemployment insurance for all of 2012 without drama or delay.

This is good news, just in time for the holidays. This is the right thing to do to strengthen our families, grow our economy, and create new jobs. This is real money that will make a real difference in people’s lives. And I want to thank every American who raised your voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. It was about you. And today, your voices made all the difference.

While the payroll tax extensions are on hold for the time being, things are still moving behind the scenes. President Obama made phone calls to both House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. While there are no plans to have a face-to-face meeting, the White House has made it clear that the ball is in the House's court.

We got two different readouts of the Obama-Boehner phone call. If only we had been conferenced in to hear what really was said.

From the White House:

In his call to Speaker Boehner, the President reiterated the need and his commitment to work with Congress to extend the payroll tax cut for the entire year, and the fact that the short-term bipartisan compromise passed by almost the entire Senate is the only option to ensure that middle class families aren't hit with a tax hike in 10 days and gives both sides the time needed to work out a full year solution.  The President urged the Speaker to take up the bipartisan compromise passed in the Senate with overwhelming Democratic and Republican support that would prevent 160 million working Americans from being hit with a holiday tax hike on January 1st. ...The President urged the Speaker to allow a vote on the one compromise that Democrats and Republicans passed together to give the American people the assurance they need during this holiday season that they won't see a significant tax hike in just 10 days.

From an aide to Speaker Boehner:

Speaker Boehner spoke to President Obama this afternoon regarding the House’s efforts to prevent a tax increase next year on 160 million working Americans. The Speaker reminded the President that the House is the only body that had done what he asked for by providing a full year of payroll tax relief and extended unemployment benefits. He urged the President to call on Senator Reid to appoint negotiators so that we can produce a full-year bill by the end of the year that provides a tax cut of $1,000 rather than only $166. The Speaker told the President that his conference was elected to change the way Washington does business and that we should not waste the next ten days simply because it is an inconvenient time of year. He said that our differences are not so great that we cannot pass a full-year bill by December 31st. Speaker reiterated to the President that Republican negotiators remain in Washington and ready to work. "Let’s get this done today," the Speaker said.

For the full story from our friends at CNN Wires, click here.

In the latest move in the tale of the dueling countdown clocks, the White House has stepped up their message to target the House and Speaker John Boehner. The running countdown clock, which has been displayed in the White House Briefing Room for the past couple weeks, now says "If the House doesn't act, middle class taxes increase in..." rather than calling on all of Congress to act.

House Speaker Boehner also put a countdown clock on is official website last week, with the word "Congress" marked out and calling on the Senate to act. 

The battling clocks are both in reference to the vote in the House for an extension of payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits. Speaker Boehner has said that he rejects the Senate plan for a two-month extension and thinks the House should work through the holidays to reach a new compromise.

Sometime this afternoon President Obama made a phone call to House Speaker John Boehner to congratulate him on passing the three free trade agreements sent over to congress earlier this month. But according to a readout released by the speaker’s office, the call quickly became a bit more confrontational when Boehner challenged the president on some comments made earlier today at his press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

When asked by CNN’s Jessica Yellin about his decision not to negotiate with Republicans on Capitol Hill over the details of his jobs plan, President Obama returned to some of the rhetoric he’s been using on the road in recent weeks, challenging Republicans to come up with their own proposals if they refuse to support his. Here’s what the president said:

Frankly, we have not seen a lot of ideas coming forward from Republicans that would indicate that same kind of commitment to job creation. If they do - if Senator McConnell or Speaker Boehner say to me, you know what, we want to get some infrastructure built-in this country, we think that putting construction workers back to work is important - I’ll be right there.  We’ll be ready to go.

I don’t think the problem here, Jessica, is that I have not been unwilling to negotiate with Republicans.  I've shown repeatedly my willingness to work overtime to try to get them to do something to deal with this high unemployment rate.  What we haven’t seen is a similar willingness on their part to try to get something done.  And we’re not going to wait around and play the usual political games here in Washington, because the American people are desperate for some relief right now.

Well, during the phone call this afternoon Boehner challenged the president’s characterization of Republican inaction. Here’s the speaker’s office readout of the call: FULL POST

When all of this started, President Obama- by choice- kept his distance, tasking Vice President Joe Biden instead to do his bidding with Congress. He eventually got very involved and was negotiating with Speaker Boehner for the last several weeks. Now his role has changed again as House Republicans try to eject the president from the conversation but can he really be sidelined?

After the breakdown of talks last night, President Obama has summoned the leaders to the White House on Saturday to continue to figure out a way to compromise for the debt talks. We'll see the beginning of the meeting when the travel pool goes into the Oval Office. Of course, the real discussions will begin once the cameras are kicked out. We'll see if there's any progress today and we'll keep you up on the latest details.

11:00 AM         THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT meet with Congressional Leadership Oval Office

Along with the president and vice president, the following are expected to attend:

Speaker John Boehner

Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican Leader

Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leader