This whole cliff thing, to my mind, is more like a big pot-hole. Yes, one could pop a tire, maybe break a shock absorber or a leaf spring. But is the whole car and all of the occupants going to die?

With a $1.6 Trillion deficit this year, the massive, scary, cliff-like cuts that the Tea Party wanted amounted to $100 Billion, which then got negotiated down to about $60 Billion. $60B from $1.6T is about %4 cut. Yawn!!! So what if much of that cuttage will come from the Military budget (which the politicians think is too unpopular to ever cut). More yawnage.

I say bring on the cliff and let the temporary tax cuts expire. And when everybody realizes that the cliff did not hurt much, then maybe we can look at addressing the other $1.55 Trillion.

Ms. Information and Dirty Harry may look like a nice couple but illusion, delusion and confusion really don't help anything, even when married together in Democratic fashion. Harry is at least 222 trillion short; see more than the ledge on horizon, see the hole: http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-real-fiscal-cliff/
There's no doubt the fed.gov will do nothing of substance; in order to deal with the problem politicians would have to admit their malversation and criminal violations of the public trust.

How did you end up at the cliff? It's not complicated. You got there by running up $16.3 trillion in debt and building that burden without end by another trillion a year. You got there by hiring a Fed chairman and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to monetize the debt, making it appear costless -- for now. You got there by not giving a damn about sticking the bill to your children and grandchildren. In other words, you got there through financial duplicity, manipulation and cowardice. I hope you enjoyed the ride. When we go over the real cliff, the journey will be breathtaking.

I'm w/Harry, not because I looked at the math but because I've been scared too many times. I'm out of fear really.

I would be shocked if we don't go over the cliff. Why? Simply put all the dems have to do is keep balking and they get what they've been trying to get for years. Tax rates go up and military gets cut, that's a win win for them. Just my opinion but republicans got really snookered when they agreed to that deal.

Just remember, this is all George Bushes fault. One man did all this.

Gosh you said it Mcinor. These sorts of things are a culmination of bad policy since Reagan, save for a brief respite in the Clinton/Gingrich years.

Like all problems in Washington DC, this one will be solved by finger pointing.