Arkansas Business

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., above, providing Arkansas Business news partner THV 11 News with an update on those "fiscal cliff" negotiations that continue in Washington D.C.

As of last night's interview, Pryor hadn't talked to Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, who was among a bipartisan group of governors meeting with President Obama on fiscal matters. There's more on what the governors got from their meeting here, and Beebe will meet with reporters Wednesday to give more details.

For his part, Pryor says the negotiations now are about political posturing, and he's ready for that to be over. "It's going to have to fall apart a couple of times before it finally comes together," Pryor said. "And it's already fallen apart once up here."

Pryor says the fiscal cliff is "the result of people keep wanting to put off the hard decisions." He says the hold up in negotiations now is about a lack of political will, most of which comes from the GOP, which unveiled its counter to the president's plan yesterday. But Pryor says Democrats share blame as well.

In the end, Pryor is optimistic Washington will arrive at a solution that avoids the kind of off-the-cliff scenarios Arkansas Business considered in a cover story in September.

"We can fix this," he said. "That's the good news here."

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In September, we sat down for our own interview with Pryor, and he spoke to us on camera specifically about what's watching for in these "fiscal cliff" negotiations."