President Barack Obama's insistence on higher taxes for topearners and Republicans' refusal to raise rates leaves negotiatorswith arithmetically complex and politically fraught choices.

Tax questions will be central today when Obama holds his firstface-to-face conversation with House Speaker John Boehner since theNov. 6 election. At the White House meeting on the so-called fiscalcliff, Obama also will host House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, aCalifornia Democrat, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a NevadaDemocrat, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a KentuckyRepublican.

As they try to find a solution both sides can accept, some movesthat ease the math complicate the politics. Republicans opposehigher rates while limits on tax breaks generate opposition frominterest groups that rely on them, including nonprofitorganizations, the home-building industry and residents of high-taxstates.