Hoyer Discusses Need to Act to Prevent the Fiscal Cliff on CNBC's "Closing Bell"

“Hopefully [a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff] will come together before the end of the year. I've been working on that. Others have been working on that. Contrary to what I heard Mr. Cantor say, the President of the United States in the 32 years I've been in Congress, has spent more time working with Republicans and frankly with Democrats in the White House around his conference table to try to get to an agreement. The Republicans walked away from the Bowles-Simpson plan. They walked away from the [Vice President] Joe Biden talks. Mr. Cantor himself walked away from those. And they walked away from the [Speaker John] Boehner- [President Barack] Obama agreement. So I'm hopeful that we will come to agreement. I think Moody's is correct - if we don't, we will undermine confidence and undermine credibility of the United States. We need to come to agreement. We need to sit down together and reason together and adopt a balanced plan. That's the trick.”

“What I'm hopeful [for] is that we will not waste the lame duck and that we will very shortly after the election engage in a way that shows patriotism and commitment to country, not to party.”

“Listen, nobody that's been watching the Congress of the United States believes that the Republicans have done anything but confront the [Obama] Administration, the United States Senate, and frankly some in their own party over the last two or four years to try to defeat this President. They have not been in a mood to compromise. They've not chosen compromise at any point in time. As I said earlier, they walked away from the Bowles-Simpson balanced plan. All three Republicans walked away from that, including Vice Presidential candidate Mr. Ryan. Mr. Cantor, who speaks about noncooperation, walked away from the [Vice President Joe] Biden talks.”