On ABC’s This Week Sunday, host George Stephanopoulos asked Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about a report that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell “burst out laughing” when Geithner told McConnell the Obama adminstration’s proposal to avert the fiscal cliff. Geithner avoided the question.

“Boy, it sure sounds like those meetings you had on Capitol Hill this week did not go very well,” Stephanopoulos said. “Senator Mitch McConnell told THE WEEKLY STANDARD that he burst into laughter when he heard your proposal, and we just heard Speaker of the House John Boehner said, let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a stalemate. So is there a stalemate, and did Mitch McConnell really laugh out loud when he heard your proposal?”