Thursday December 27, 2012, 2:21 am
Thanks Cal for the link to the article. I don't think a dead will be reached and in a way I hope not. I honestly don't think the GOP will be able to maintain any credibility with the voters if Jan 1 comes and there has been no action. Read and noted.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 3:23 am
Is this what one calls a cliff hanger?
I think that the USA will survive, one way or another. When the reality of their policies hit the GOP, there will be no coming back for them

Thursday December 27, 2012, 3:54 am
Noted. Thanks.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 4:17 am
What's more important, reigning it uncontrolled spending or keeping taxes low. Why Obama one, so did a lot of republicans, and those in congress and the senate represent local voters, not everyone.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 4:18 am
headline is backwards!!

Thursday December 27, 2012, 6:10 am
I should have asked Santa for a "fiscal" sled! These traitorous repugs have no sense of patriotism - with jerks like these we guarantee the demise of amerika - oh well maybe the rest of the wworld will be better off!

Thursday December 27, 2012, 6:28 am
"A Senate Democratic leadership aide responded that the only way a fiscal package can move in either chamber is if both parties are on board. "We need cooperation from Republicans," said the aide, "and that hasn't materialized yet."

So, the Republican party intends to sit on its hands while DC burns, eh? Okay. That works. Because on January 1, taxes will go up on everyone thanks to the now institutionalized intransigence of the Republican party. They won't be saving the upper 2%, they will be increasing taxes on the entire country. And if they think no one really knows that, despite the bleating heads at Faux news, well, they are quite wrong. There is but one way out of this mess and that is a word that is not in the republican dictionary, compromise. So it is on their heads that this ax will fall. We'll see what happens when the new congress is seated. As Lawrence O'Donnell has pointed out so often, this isn't a fiscal cliff, it is a fiscal curb, and can be fixed retroactively and quickly by the new Congress, if the republican leadership is willing to compromise on a plan acceptable to democrats, Boehner can get it passed with democratic support, the teapublicans can rant all they want, the rest of the sane world wants this fixed fairly. Their tantrums will only hasten the end of their tawdry influence in American history and reduce it to a mere blip in the history books, as an example of how not to survive as a political movement. Good.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 9:39 am
GENE, I OWE YOU A CONSTELLATION OF STARS!

They have NO IDEA the anger which they'll generate....

Thursday December 27, 2012, 12:00 pm
Noted. Thanks Cal.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 12:38 pm
Noted...thanks Cal. This is really disgusting. There is only one at the negotiating table willing to negotiate, and that is the President. He is basically negotiating with himself. Boehner is beholden to the teabaggers and is trying to save his speakership, which he is incompetent at anyway. The President has already given too much by agreeing to cutoff Bush tax cuts for those making over $400K instead of $250K, and by tying social security benefit paymnents to the CPI. The saddest part is the unemployed who will be affected by running out of checks as a result of this. The teabaggers care only about doing the bidding of the wealthy. It is an astroTurf movement that is hopefully coming to an end.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 12:44 pm
Noted. Thanks Cal.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 1:22 pm
he GOP needs to be changed to BOB, as in Bunch of Buffoons!
Hopefully, this will be their last gasp.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 2:20 pm
Ok, let's put this in perspective for Gene....As of now, Obama is proposing to cut 200 federal jobs in the area of social services and education; jobs he created as political favors.
Now, this administration wants a 3,7 billion military disposal., and the democrats are not talking, and the GOP refuses to budge. Where is this in the media? Financial cliff by butt.
By the way, the media had also not paid attention to his wanting to freeze domestic programs for 5 years.
Research what this man has in mind for this country before you point blame.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 3:04 pm
Boehner and the Republican/Teabaggers are so fractious, so much at war with themselves that they don't and won't think of the country, the people. Boehner is passing off HIS problem because his caucus won't come together.

A fiscal cliff? --- more like a fiscal speed bump! But whatever you call it, it can not be kicked down the road for someone else to deal with. It must be dealt with now.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 4:30 pm
Boehner and rest of the GOP House leadership should be tried for treason for being on vacation during this crisis.
Boehner should be ashamed of himself for being such a coward by not standing up to the Tea Party members in the House.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 7:58 pm
there is blame on both sides. neither side is willing to bend. we should go off the cliff and then fix the things that need fixing. there is tons of waste in government and the tax laws need to be over hauled. obama doesn't cut spending only adds more employees to our bloated fed and the gop doesn't raise taxes. we wouldn't have to raise taxes if the loop holes were closed. it's the loop holes that are the problem.
time for everybody from obama on down to go. obama should have never been re-elected he's unfit. the only reason he was is because the mainstream media made sure only crazy gop stuff was heard and nothing obama has screwed has been pushed.
between lybia, and gun running alone obama should have been tossed out. if he had been a gop party person he would have been hung in the street.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 8:52 pm
Well, that cements the facts for me, the Speaker of
the House does not know his Constitutional duties
and has pawned them off to the President and the
Senate.

Time to just resign sir. Go home to your dad's pub,
where you know what to do - maybe.

Thursday December 27, 2012, 10:36 pm
Chuck Todd probably has it right. The GOP will sit on its hands this week and do next week what it should have done this week and then claim they're lowering taxes. The fiscal cliff is a complete fraud, based on false premises.

Billie C., to what loopholes do you refer?

Friday December 28, 2012, 4:43 am
Noted. Thanks.

Friday December 28, 2012, 6:40 am
The President and the emocrats need to stop the demonizing and offer up a middle ground spending cut proposal. It can't be my way or the highway. Harry reid is particualrly obnoxious and hasn't helped a bit.

Friday December 28, 2012, 6:42 am
Going over the cliff may be a good thing as it will kill the tax cuts that were meant by Bush to be temporary and kill many other wasteful spending initiatives of the Obama years such as extended UE times.

Friday December 28, 2012, 7:06 am
A bill must be passed by midnight 12/31/2012 the Repug/Tea Bagged controlled House will not be back in session until 6:30 pm 12/30/2012, less than 18 hours for them to continue to refuse to govern for any one other than the top 2%. Boner will do nothing that will endanger his re-election as Speaker of the House, Mc Connell is up for re-election to the Senate and will do nothing that will get him primaried from the right. And you can add to that the fact that 2013 House calendar has them only working 8 F'ing days in the entire month of January, one of three (3) months in 2013 that they will work only 8 F'ing days. The House is giving themselves another illegal raise in 2013, in 2012 the Repugs gave themselves a 33% raise by scheduling one week in every three off, in 2013 they are upping it to 50% as they will only work one (1) week in every two (2). And the douche nozzle Repug majority in the House has still not Vote on VAWA, Violence Against Women Act, they have not passed or renewed the Farm Bill, they did not pass the Veterans Job Bill, they did not pass the Jobs Bill, they have done literally 1/10 the work the Infamous "Do Nothing Congress" did. In short they are guilty of theft buy collecting their $100,000 salaries, government subsidized Health Care, and other perks but not working.

Friday December 28, 2012, 12:55 pm
Shame on John Boehner for doing NOTHING to work with the President. All those people who will be affected and still this Congress does absolutely nothing but sit around and try to look "pretty and busy."

Friday December 28, 2012, 6:44 pm
Thanks