I sincerely doubt that’ll happen. The house passed it’s “we know it’ll never become law” HR8, and the Senate passed it “we know it’ll never become law” S3412.

Both are refusing to put the other’s law to any type of vote.

We’re going over the cliff, as each side swears its the others turn to drive.

Erick, I think your last sentence most closely describes the situation, but I’d replace “incapable” with “unwilling.”

I’m highly disgusted with the federal public sector in general, on both sides of the aisle. What a sorry bunch of public servants. The mess they’ve created over the last 30 or 40 years is genuinely mind-boggling. Those with the most power are those mostly to blame because they’ve been in office the longest.

They’re also the ones the news media most fervently protect.

The federal public sector is such a massive, impenetrable quagmire of excessive revenue and excessive spending: an excellent portrait of what happens when quintessentially unwise, overly self-interested people are given a free hand to take as much as they can for as long as they want without having to answer to anybody.

The country has some big problems, and they’re not unsolvable. But with the federal public sector the way it is, and with the bulk of the news media really unwilling to genuinely inform people about what goes on, I don’t see any solutions coming.

It makes me so angry that these public servants, who are supposed to prevent these kinds of problems, are instead causing and profiting from them, and it seems impossible to hold them accountable.

So now, the unstoppable force–federal spending–is about to run into the unmovable object–the money has run out–and a lot of people are going to be hurt, in one way or another. It’s a travesty of government: the complete and utter failure of elected public servants, and the complete and utter failure of the “watchdog” news media.

I’ve absolutely no respect for the US government, and y’know what? It’s pretty obvious that they have absolutely no respect for me, either. But they’re the ones who had the authority, the where-with-all, the opportunity and the responsibility to prevent this from happening, and they’re the one’s who’ve failed. Most poignantly, they’re failure isn’t due to lack of ability. It’s due to a lack of will: genuine apathy toward the country’s general welfare. It’s negligence on a grand scale.

Moreover, I’ve absolutely no respect for the news media. Politicians will of course deceive and obfuscate. We look to the news media to hold them accountable, but the news media have utterly and, I dare say, willingly failed to do this. The politicians mismanage pubic money and engage in all manner of self-serving scams, schemes and backroom deals, but if they crow in favor of this civil-rights issue or that one, the media give them a free pass to do as they please: disgusting–absolutely disgusting.

I’m supposed to respect these people? I’m supposed to believe in them? Ha!

So, about all we can do is strap ourselves in and brace ourselves for the collision.

Shame, shame, shame on our federal public sector, and on our news media.

Both sides are avoiding “on the record” votes that can come back to ‘bite them’ in the next election. It occurs to me that the www has increased the level of visibility on votes to the point that all congress critters prefer avoiding votes. There was a time when voting records were pretty easy to keep out of the mass public eye. Of course this cloak of ignorance kept a lot of squishes in office that led us to our current over-spending BIG govt situation.

Once you accept that the only thing, and I mean the only thing, congress is interested in is getting re-elected, their lack of action on anything that causes pain to solve a problem is completely understandable. This is why we need longer terms and term limits.

Reid must be pressured into allowing this to come to a vote in the senate. We currently have 47 conservative senators, 2 independents and 51 liberals. I find it impossible to believe that we can’t pry off just 2 liberals from the 51 to vote for a tax cut!

Everybody grab a pillow and join hands. After all the drama, we are going off the cliff — by design if you ask me. The meeting in the White House appears to be over and Pelosi, Reid, Boehner and McConnell all scampered away without any press coverage of what just took place. I’ll be glad when the first gets here and we see who is still alive.

Obama isn’t running for re-election. Most senators and representatives are. That’s how this is being played. One consequence of term-limiting the president.

In my estimation, there will be a push by the party in power to salve the pain after January 1, which is when ordinary Americans of all stripes will begin hurting.

Good luck to the president then. He has gambled poorly and lost.

I’m personally opposed to raising taxes on any hard-working Americans. However, if a deal on the fiscal cliff does include tax increases, I think it would be wise for the GOP to demand that any increases be temporary (just like the Bush tax cuts) or revokable if promised spending cuts don’t materialize.

“Freedom” “Prosperity” “Everyone” there’s 3.

when does it stop? when there’s nothin’ let to save anymore?

Alas, I was waiting for the white smoke from the WH and we only got black smoke (see choosing a Pope from the Vatican); no deal. Pull the ripcord; we’re going over the cliff as the Obama Inc. engineered and clearly wants after hearing his so called press availability speech today (where he took no questions as usual) which was a do-over of his 12/24 speech. No substance just his way or the highway. Reps. will get snookered again with tax increases and no spending cuts if they pass this nonsense.
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Seemingly he has no responsibility in this mess since he said he’s worked so hard to solve it-sarc. Yet he hasn’t met with Rep. Leaders since 11/16- wow, he’s working hard to avoid the cliff called a sand dune on the golf course!
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Admittedly I vascillated on Plan B, but I’m glad the House didn’t pass it as I see Dictator Reid gutting it and inserting the King’s wishes and now calling it a revenue bill similar to O’care. We can’t trust the Dems at all.

mong001, I like your suggestion of any agreement being temporary, like 3-6 months tops and revokable if cuts aren’t made. Brilliant! Funny (not) that the Dems that protested so much on the Bush tax cuts are now the proponents of them. The Dems always steal Rep. ideas and we let them. Sad.

Samsara, say what? What is the compromise? Sorry not clear.

Good honorable and sensible real conservatives will make some ‘tough’ votes because they vote on what they think is right, but the shape-shifter stay-in-power types will always find ways to weasel out to survive, to ‘look good’ while not actually accomplishing anything. Demonstration votes, backroom deals, these are the tools of the corruptocrats.

I’d rather kick him in the leg for voting “present” on so many votes. You’re right technically, but Reid & princess Pelosi have no mea culpa.

True since the MSM cover for O and they too are to blame. But, O told Reid to hold a vote so dictator Reid is beholden to the golden and now we’ll see how many Dems from the rich blue states will vote a tax increase on their own. $250K in San Fran or NY is not rich. Let the votes fall as I’ve been saying as even Reid may want to continue to take cover and defy the prez in this case. My bet is the tax rate increase is over $500K or even more with a Dem majority. “Truth or Dare” is what I said a few days back in a diary and now we’ll see who backs the prez’s proposal. Slim pickins!

Dems first, of course. Only Dems would use the excuse of tax cuts being too big for the rich to vote against them for everyone.

checkmate2012 – you may be right. Byron York tweeted last night that the deal would be permanent current rates for everyone under $500k. spending cuts will be deferred until the debt ceiling debate. We’ll see … I do agree that Senate dems should be very worried about the $250 – $500k crowd being labeled/taxed as the ‘rich’. A lot of them are up for reelection in 2014. I think Boehner knew this all along, and tried to ‘use’ this with his $1 mil gambit. Its about time the Senate did something (besides spend our tax $$).

While I’m definitely not a fan of how the President has handled any of this, I’m not sure how you could look at the situation and think the legislative process wasn’t being used, nor to blame.

250,000…1 million…compromise 400,000.
If Republicans don’t take the deal, Dems will ram through 25,000. Dems will then have another slice of the electorate they can turn on the GOP. I know, its illogical but that is how it will be played.

“Those intransigent GOP congressmen cost me my tax cut.”

Spending cuts settled with the debt ceiling, but if GOP doesn’t do a better job that effort will fall apart as well.

Jack, watch this clip from C-Span.org where McConnell states that the S3412 bill hasn’t left the Senate. But the House bill was sent to the Senate:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Reiddeb

But why did Obama get involved in the first place? If memory serves, the GOP leaders were the ones who brought him into this fight by blaming his administration of being “unwilling to compromise” before the election. IOW, they willingly opened the door for him to get in on this; this also opened the door for him to run on it in the election – so he did, and won.

What has it gotten the GOP? A 2 v. 2 ratio of Party leaders turning into a 3 v. 2 in the Dem’s favor, and an election cycle that puts the wind at the President’s back… Are you saying we’re supposed to blame HIM for jumping into a fight that’s rigged in his favor from the get-go? I don’t think so…

We don’t need to remind Obama of anything (he wouldn’t listen anyhow, so why bother?); we should remind the GOP leaders that it’s THEIR job to work across the isle – not the President’s. Instead of giving Obama a chance to make his reputation better, just keeping him out of the process altogether would’ve put the GOP in a better bargaining position in the long run…

You can’t be a dictator if you can’t get your nose in on the deal.

i’ll up that, seems every day is overton-window day anymore. Making the legislation temporary as mong001 suggested would require some interface between GOP leader(s) and constituancy here…and we all know that ain’t ever happenin’ for some-odd reason.

Discussing any kind of threshold for tax increases (e.g. $200k, $400k, $1m) simply concedes the argument to the liberals. We conservatives need to take a principled stand and advocate for policies that are always pro-growth in 10-year GDP terms, and are fiscally neutral-to-beneficial. Therefore, raising corporate taxes, capital gains taxes or higher marginal tax rates should be opposed on the simple principle that they reduce economic activity, thus reducing GDP and reducing total revenue. Why is this so hard for our Republican leadership to articulate in simple terms, instead of pandering to the class warfare positions?

Ignorance is right if not downright stupidity of the electorate! But not sure how you overcome that except the suggestions by Tbone below-I agree with not being able to vote if someone is on welfare. The age limit seems reasonable compared to term limits. It’s hard to make changes when the majority of lawmakers have been there most of their lives and forget what it’s like in realville.

I’m pretty sure that would never get past SCOTUS.

I was glad to see CO allow vouchers and Jindal has been a pioneer in his state. It’s a sad state of affairs in the teaching of revisionist history but I agree that school choice could break the dam of the unions.

I blame the president as much as Congress. He pulls the strings of puppet Reid who then aquieces like not passing a budget in 4 years. Yes Congress is dysfuntional, Reid is the mini-dictator, and debate is a long lost skill in Congress (due to all the committees and sub-com IMO). A leader leads and it’s more than apparent now that Obama wants to go over the cliff as I’ve been saying all along. When someone like Boehner tries to make a deal for common goals, one does not continually move the goal posts! Lucy! There is no such thing as compromise with the dictator in chief.
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On Meet the Depressed today, Obama blamed Republicans in Congress and then had the audacity to say he cut spending by over $1T. So he blames them and then takes credit for their work! McConnell put out an offer at 7pm on Sat. and still had no response from Reid when he took to the mic today at about 2:30. Shortly after Reid said:
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“Reid said they have been in negotiations for hours with Republicans, but aren’t yet able to respond. We’ve been trying to come up with some counter offer to my friend’s proposal… We have been unable to do that.” Added the Nevada Democrat: “I’ve had a number of conversations with the president and at this stage, we’re not able to make a counter offer.”
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Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/30/mcconnell-begs-democrats-to-negotiate-i-need-a-dance-partner/#ixzz2GbDDBrm5
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Why couldn’t he respond? He has no ability unless his strings are pulled by the prez! McConnell even took the SS chained CPI off the table and still no deal.
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All of this is disgusting and I hate that Republicans are taking the blame when they passed bills to avoid all of this that the Reid put on the shelf. It’s abundantly clear that the demrats want to go over the cliff and that should be clear to everyone at this point. It’s a lose/lose proposition for Americans and I blame the president, not Congress, since Reid represents the prez.

I agree, in fact I wrote a diary suggesting that the tax increases the Dems want be PERMANENTLY linked to spending reductions vs the previous year, in such a way that if spending increased over last fiscal year, the tax increases would not happen….

Dave_A, so many great suggestions that the ruling class never entertains, sadly. The leaders don’t even listen to their caucus to it’s hard to imagine them listening to us in the homeland.

Looks like McConnell just gave Biden a talking point for 2016, and effectively shoved House Republicans aside.

The House GOP’s position will probably be even more weakened after this. Which also means trouble for John Boehner and Paul Ryan, especially the latter in the long run.