Obama says not acceptable for "handful of Republicans" to block fiscal deal

HATFIELD, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - President Barack Obama accused a "handful of Republicans" in the House of Representatives on Friday of holding up legislation to extend tax cuts for middle-class Americans in order to try to preserve them for the wealthy.

Facing a year-end fiscal crunch, Obama used a visit to a toy factory to try to drum up support among Americans and pressure Republicans in Congress to agree to his proposal to let the tax cuts expire for Americans who make more than $250,000 a year.

Obama blamed Republicans who control the House of holding up a deal.

"It's not acceptable to me and I don't think it's acceptable to you for just a handful of Republicans in Congress to hold middle-class tax cuts hostage simply because they don't want tax rates on upper income folks to go up," Obama said.

(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal, Writing by Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick)