To zimmertunes-I agree and did you see the poop eating grin on Cantor's face last night as he left. Sneaky bastard. They've probably been snowing Boehner for weeks!

Get your parachutes out, folks. It's beginning to look a lot like Cliffness.

If Cliffmas-New Years means that nearly all the taxes return back to the President Clinton year tax rates before he left office. So I do not takeit that we will be taking much of a fall, now do you? This whole "cliff" thing has been made into a media molehill. This is only a cliff here is for Republicans who now have to now deal directly with the Democrats and President Obama. The GOP lemmings listened to the tea party and did what they told to do and now they all went over the cliff together and in the end they get what they and Rove paided for. Which is nothing and coal for Cliffmas.

they should have to stay at work until this is done. If they didn't have the option to leave, we'd have a compromise by now.

"there was no real point in them sticking around, anyway."

Well that's been true for a long time!

Doncha get the feeling DC is on another planet? Like they are operating in a bubble? Dems as well as Repugs. It's like they don't know what people want... for some unknown reason.

If all they care about is getting re-elected (and that seems the case) why don't they do something the people want? The last election showed that tons of money doesn't win over what the people think. Polls say people want the wealthy to contribute more...for corporate perks and loopholes to disappear. It's not hard to see.

Stop governing for Corporations and govern for people!

Let me get this straight, 100% of the House Demonrats vote against the bill and somehow it's the Republican's fault? LOL

'Push us BACK into recession'? We here in the middle-class economic trenches have yet to be convinced that recession isn't our New Reality; in brandishing the "fiscal cliff" just what are they threatening us with---change?

lol This goes far beyond taxes. Even if they taxed the wealthiest 2% at 100% of their income it would only fund the federal government 8 days. According to the Congressional Budget Office, nominal spending in 2008 was $2.5 trillion. The outlays for the 2013 budget are an estimated $3.5 trillion. This means our government plans on spending a trillion dollars more each year. Frankly, that's not okay.

you know what strikes me as dishonest...those tea party folks who think theyare "real republicans'..and who say they don't want to "raise taxes" do they understandthat the bush tax cuts were passed with an expiration date because they did nothave the votes to pass a permanent tax cut and also because the supposed clintonsurplus was no where near sufficient to underwrite the tax cuts into pepetuity..and do they realize that their insistance on spending cuts is directly related tothe overspending by their own party when bush was president...these aren't realrepublicans in any sense of the word...their invocation of ronald reagan is disingenuous because reagan realized that it was impossible to get everything and so even he raised taxes and he did so many times over..and the spending cuts he insisted on he actually got regardless of what mr limbaugh and mr hannity keep insisting..republicans are no officially the party of know nothings people who don't understand the issues and parrot only what they hear that reinforces their already mistaken beliefs..fact of the matter is that traditional republicans believe in medicare, social security and non intervention foreign policy so if that makes me a rino that is fine..in fact i just recently changed my registration to no party and that is what everyone who is as disgusted with the tea party house members as i am should do as well

MSNBC? Masquerading as balanced 'news.'

Same thing as FOX...just the other side of the extremist coin! Loonies to the left of me, Loonies to the right of me.

Some of these commenters need to get a life & quit pretending they know what they are talking about.

I said it yesterday and I was proved right. It's the Tea Party that has Boehner by the balls not Boehner that has Obama by the balls.

And dims have exposed themselves for what they are, worthless

Not a surprise that Boehner could not get a majority of Republicans to support his bill. He agreed to raising taxes without a lot of tax cuts. The Democrats should not be gloating about it because a not one Democrat has voted for an Obama budget last year and the Senate Democrats have not even passed a budget for four years.

It is rare that I have ever agreed with Howard Dean but we actually agree on Obama's budget. Although he is proposing a tax increase, he is also proposing an increase in spending. This bill does nothing to address the issue.

Both sides need to get serious. When I don't have the money, I have to cut expenses. Our government needs to do the same thing.

While I would agree that he is a fine young man, Luke Russert has not earned his position with NBC. There are thousands of far more talented and experienced news people that are out there in towns and cities across the country earning their way to the "big time". To just hand this to someone without experience and extraordinary political insights really is a slap in the face to all of those individuals.

But the more important issue that should be scaring the hell out of all of us is that a handful of selfish and stupid Republicans in the House could prevent any legislation from getting passed and throw this country back into a severe recession. If I were John Boehner, I'd find a handful of thoughtful Republicans that recognize that the country is more important than their jobs who would work with the Democrats to pass the President's latest proposal. It may cost Boehner his job, but it would help save the country and marginalize the "loony element" of the Republican Party so that it might once again emerge as a serious political party and not remain as a bad joke.

Pass a Constitutional Amendment that provides for drafting Congress, just like the military draft used to be. All US Citizens, except the mentally incompetent and felons, would be required to register. Every time a seat in the HR or Senate comes open, a person's name would be randomly drawn from the eligible population of that district or that state. These people would then serve one term per lifetime at the same salary and benefits that a member of the HR or Senate now receive. Their "civilian" position at home would be held open until their return home by law. At the conclusion of their term, they would be honorably discharged from Congress with the thanks of a grateful nation.

• This would establish the idea of "citizen lawmakers" that the Founding Fathers intended. None of them were "career politicians" as we define them now.
• The diversity of Congress would expand exponentially, allowing people to meet, know, and interact with the widest variety of races, religions, social and economic conditions, social beliefs, genders, etc.
• A professional staff would continue to be provided to each HR member and Senator in order to provide procedural guidance and support.
• The costs of elections for these seats would be eliminated.
• The members' votes would not likely be based on feathering their nests for re-election, or by party affilation.
• While it would not eliminate the possibility of members' being influenced by bribery or other means, it would likely reduce the chances and/or make detection easier.
• It would be a true mix of citizens and the net ability to do congress' work would be at least what it is now. The random selection process and the one-term limit would insure that the mix remains diverse. For every jerk whose name gets drawn, a genius would be selected for another district/state by the law of averages. Billionaires and people on welfare would be equally likely to be called up together.
• Speaker of the House and committee chairs would be chosen by majority vote.
• The role of political parties would now be confined to elections for President, Vice President, and state/local elections.

I know-sounds crazy, but it would probably eliminate the problems we have today. Nearly impossible? Yes. But we really don't know where things are heading right now, and we really don't know...someday, this might well be possible. It's still an interesting concept.

This may sound crazy, but I think it's a real possibility. I'll make a prediction. We go over the fiscal cliff. Congress passes a tax cut for earners less than $250k during the first week of 2013. Most of the automatic spending cuts will stay in place, except for military spending which the right will get increased by holding the debt ceiling hostage.

The reason I believe this is that this is the only way for everyone to save face and keep their jobs in congress. It's Simpson- Bowles without the political suicide.

The 'old white men' power structure is in its final stages. They will make us suffer as long as they can. Power and ego are difficult foe but as we have seen in the recent election, the will of the people prevails.

Unfortunately we've had to endure a long and nasty battle against conservative arrogance. You might call this period an economic civil war. I think it will be a very good new year in spite of currents events.

Remember also, these guys are counting on mostly Republicans to turn out for the mid-term elections -- I'd love to see a rerun of 11/6/12 and everybody show up to vote them out!!!

Wishful thinking on the authors part. Educated America knows it's not entirely the Republican Party's fault. There are simply more Democrat Freeloader Party voters now than working tax paying Republican voters. More voting freeloaders always win out over less working tax payers. More proof when you vote Democrat, we ALL lose.

When ever John Boehner is shown trying to get his caucus to follow his lead, the Peter Principle originated by Dr Lawrence J Peter which states that an employee within a hierarchical organization advances to their highest level of incompetence..., comes to my mind.

When ever John Boehner trys to get his caucus to follow his lead, the Peter Principle originated by Dr Lawrence J Peter which states that an employee within a hierarchical organization advances to their highest level of incompetence..., comes to mind. I think it's time for him to give it up.

I think Rachel was right on when she came up with the theory a few weeks ago that the republicans were making such a fuss about President Obama's possible Secretary of State nominee because they knew the second choice would be John Kerry and if he is the the Secretary of State, he gives up his senate seat and with a republican governor in his state, a republican will be put in his place in the senate.

Fast forward to extensive negotiations between Mr Boehner and the President. You can be sure that compromises were discussed. What if Obama conceded the senate seat by putting John Kerry in for Secretary of State but on the side Mr Boehner and his caucus decided to pull the rug out from under Obama's feet by reneging on their part of the agreement and staging their arguments and walk out. More republican play acting and posturing.

Whats going to happen is what I believe Obama has been angling at ever since the fiscal cliff issue was first created last year. He knew Republicans would NEVER, even if they get trounced in the election (odds of obama gaining house were almost nonexistant) make any sort of significant concessions on taxes, despite their leadership wanting to, the rank and file are just to extreme and inflexiable. So nothing would ever become passed before the sequester that would be approved by Obama or the great majority of american people. So the increases hit, and the VERY next day Obama introduces a tax cut for lower-middle income americans. He won't even need to go as high as 250,000$. He would love nothing more then to see republicans vote against a tax cut, they'll will never recover from it. The only thing that was more laughable then Boehners total miscalculation was either Mitch McConnel filibustering his own bill OR that the new spending cut bill the house passed earlier this week which transferred 200$ billion from defense to domestic spending cuts

NPR reported at one point that Republicans would resist going for an early deal, because they would always feel a kind of "buyer's remorse:" their base would always feel that they could have gotten a better deal if they had held out to the end. I can't say it's unfounded on either side. Look at Obama who tried to jump start things in the past, by coming to the table with concessions, trying to show he's willing to meet in the middle. Instead he gets criticism from both sides. And in a way, I understand, there's a way this game is played, and you can't try to be efficient and skip a step.

Personally, I think it's good that they went home for the holidays. It may be a time when local constituents may be heard more clearly on how they feel about the fiscal cliffs. If only 2% earn above 250k annually, I think most congressional districts have a sizable population who would say let those tax rates stay down.

I know our politicians run on platforms and then we think, ok, we elected you so go to it. And the truth is, perhaps now more than ever, we need citizen participation in government. While we may not do it, we certainly have, more than ever before, the social media tools for people to speak out and build ground support. Maybe the upside of having a divided Congress is that we need to call upon citizens to take a more vocal role and have more input.

Maybe the Republicans will hold all their constituents hostage, while they push for the tax increases of the extremely rich, who fund their super PACs In some ways I understand that, although I think those guys are getting more than their share of representation. And I think, there have got to be more Republicans out there than the very wealthy, like the ones who work the campaigns or even vote. They need to remind the Republicans that that the members of the 2% are potentially only 2% of their district's vote and that regardless of the final ad spending, the majority of their districts bring in the bottom line: the vote.

If we want to change the gun laws, fiscal cliff and debt ceiling, then some action has to get started at a local level. While there's plenty of drama in Washington to keep our attention, perhaps that is the distraction that is keeping us from the goals of the people, all the people: Democrats and Republicans.

Even though the election is over, I think perhaps we have still not surmounted some of the real challenges that dogged Democrats in the past. It is not enough to make fun of people who can't understand marginal tax increases. We need the people like Bill Clinton who can speak knowledgeably, lucidly and simply to the public to explain what needs to happen to avoid the fiscal cliff/slope. We need the groups that made their own personal issues ads/appeals.

For Boehner, well this wasn't very good. But to me, it highlights more his party's weakness more than his own. The proposal wasn't even near a meaningful concession and they still were holding out. Ok, I get them holding out against Democrats, but this is within their own party. It speaks to a great weakness that they cannot make the concessions and act as a coalition as a party.

For a party who thinks they are pro-business and therefore espouse more efficient government, I think that that is "malarky." Romney's campaign's overcharging of the press corps makes me wonder, ok, how much would his government have overcharged the country. What kind of business would go for all the investigations into everything that Fox News and pundits say is yet another Watergate? Who brought us the taxpayer waste of the Kenneth Starr investigation during the Clinton administration?

While there's a lot of drama in the fiscal cliff, it is fortunately more of a fiscal slope. The bad part is that it is shows to the world how dysfunctional our government is and that is what shakes investor confidence more than anything. Personally, I think investors should write to their congressional representatives and tell them how bad they'll look if we can't manage our debt ceiling in a timely manner or we go over the cliff. How much worse that is on top of the deficit spending that upsets Republicans so much?

Anyway, maybe we need the voices of the American public to get Congress to make an agreement and break the gridlock. Maybe.

Boehner looks like he's constipated.