WASHINGTON – Republicans familiar with a new White House offer on avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff say it looks almost exactly like President Barack Obama's budget proposal last February.

GOP aides say Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner presented an offer calling for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over the coming decade, extending the 2 percentage point payroll tax deduction or something comparable to it and $50 billion in stimulus spending on infrastructure projects.

The White House plan calls for $960 billion over the coming decade by increasing tax rates and taxes on investment income on upper-bracket earners and $600 billion in additional taxes. Republicans view the offer as a step backward with the fiscal cliff — an economy-rattling set of automatic spending cuts and tax increases — looming at years' end.