You need to look up the Congressional Republicans that were just voted out of office in Illinois, especially Joe Walsh. He loves to see himself on any public media that is available - look him up, he makes Blago look like he has his act together. Please look him up - you will love it.

Should the Republicans continue to block any progress on both the "cliff" and debt limit, it will not be forgotten and they be unelectable in many states, including mine; as several Republican Tea Party Congressmen lost in the last election. In practical terms, they will be unelectable.

time4change - Perhaps the President does not want to use his constitutionally granted powers. Consider the thought he feels there is more to gain for HIM if he allows taxes to go up on everyone and cuts to social programs. He could then claim it was not what he wanted, but he could do nothing to get the Republicans to agree on anything. He gets more revenue and the cuts will help him state he was the president who balanced the budget, when he leaves office in four years. He gets what he really wants and does not have to take any political hits to his legacy. It was the Republicans that hurt America not his administration. I do not trust him anymore than I trust the tea bagger Republicans or any Republicans as far as that goes.

Akunard - It is not hard to know which party you voted for, the losing party. Are you stating it is the President who was responsible for the amount spent over the last four years and the Congress has nothing to do with it? If so you are showing why you voted for the Republican candidate. It has been the tea baggers in the House that have decided they will allow the cuts in our fiscal crisis if the billionaires and millionaires that put them in office do not get their huge tax breaks, after all they bought the politicians on the right and expect their payoff no matter what it costs the country. I almost believe there is a conspiracy between the President and the Republicans in the House to allow this so called fiscal cliff scenario to happen. The President will get his tax increases he has been bagging for and the Republicans will get the cuts they want in the social programs they hate so much. I do not believe that Social Security or Medicare are going to get the cuts the Republicans drool over since they were left out of this agreement. I could be wrong about Social Security and Medicare, but either way the social programs that the poor and middleclass rely on will be decimated. Education, housing, food stamps are just a few of the social programs that will come under the ax if no agreement is reached. Since the super wealthy are going to get increases no matter what, the tea bagger Republicans have very little insensitive to sign onto any agreement. The middleclass tax payers on average will lose their tax cuts that are around $2500 a year and the Republicans in the House are only concerned with the increases their masters will have to pay, to Hell with the rest of America. Obama keeps edging forward with agreeing that the tax increases he now proposes will increase taxes on those making more than $400,000 a year instead of the $250,000 he first asked for. Boehner said he would go for tax changes for those making more than $1,000,000 a year and he still could not get the tea baggers to agree with that! It is time to gather ourselves together and march on the Republicans and Democrats that are holding our country and its citizen’s hostage over whether we should tax the very wealthiest in our country. We need to march on their offices and homes. Yes HOMES, as in the home they live in and not just Washington offices. If that does not work we need to consider even more effective ways of getting their attention. Just calling their Washington offices will not do a thing. I realize that sounds like a scenario that would be hard to do, but it is exactly what the Wall St. protesters did and they were noticed, until the Gestapo police in N.Y. started playing hardball. Well the citizenry can play the same kind of game the Greeks and the Spanish demonstrators are having to do in order to get their point across. I believe if we band together in the tens of thousands we would see an immediate change in the way the Whitehouse and the Congress are handling or not handling this crisis. This fiscal crisis, we will see take place on Jan. 2, 2013, will only be the first of cuts to programs for the poor and the middleclass to happen. Once they think we are down for the count they will step even harder on our necks and the necks of generations to come. Our Children and Grandchildren deserve more from us, than just cowering from this governmental body that holds us in such ill disregard. I will be happy to join any movement that can be put together, to stop this tyranny by our politicians.

We are in this mess because the Pres. spent 1 Trillion a year over what the Govt. took in!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although the Rebulican Oligarchs engineered the fiscal cliff and have brought us to the precipice, they show no movement toward relenting in their plan to destroy the United States of America, its economy and its people who happen to earn less than $1,000,000 per annum. I say bring on the cliff and bring on the debt default and then perhaps we shall finally see the end of these dastardly villains and all that they represent (at least for a while). Let the whole damn thing go and perhaps even bring the oloigarchs down to where the rest of us are.

"Bellum omnia contra omnia" would be a war of all against all, i.e. every man for himself.

Re today's geeky science, I've noticed that I feel really good when I've recently been giving and helpful.

Regarding violence though, I overheard someone at work advocating corporal punishment for one's own children. I didn't get involved in the discussion, but I believe that use of violence sets a threshold of what it takes to modify someone's behavior. Adults that were beaten as children are probably incapable of learning to alter their behavior through words. They've been raised to believe (subconsciously) that, if no one is beating the tar out of them, their behavior is okay, regardless of verbal complaints.

Sam! Social Security recipients HAVE EARNED their money MUCH MORE SO than vulture capitalists and other 1peercenters.. The 1 percenters' billions are much more gambling winnings than earned income even when it's by legitimately starting a business and not in the stock market - which is not earned at all but making money on other people's labor.

Nobody earns a billion, certainly not in one pop and certainly not more than working people "earn" a few thousand.

THERE'S NO END TO THE TRICKS THEY'LL PULL.!

That's what it is, essentially. The fiscal cliff is a problem made up by the two corporate lobbyist bought parties for their "good cop, bad cop" routine to get us (instead of the 1%) to accept austerity. Similarly, raising the debt cieling will be a made up crisis as raising it is routine and no big deal but the two parties will pretend it is a great calamimty to be averted, to the same end.

Too many people must be getting wise to the "fiscal cliff" and the false ominousness surrounding it.