Obama has bad intentions, negotiates in bad faith, and is utterly dishonest about his purpose (blaming and destroying the GOP, not solving a fiscal crisis). What the GOP should be doing is shouting these truths from the rooftops, not sitting down to dine with this disgrace of a "president".

It appears to me that the Republicans have offered several compromise positions.

The PINO is the intransigent one.

I agree 100%,take the cliff.Making a deal with Obama would be a disaster for the country and republican party.The blame the republicans would get would be short term. Obama´s still the president and can´t blame all problems on them.

I can´t afford my taxes going up 5% but I´d rather deal with that than give Obama more money to waste on his voters and donors.Union members will get creamed the worst and who can be against that?

Why make a deal now? Making a deal now will have the same results as jumping out of an airplane that is about to crash. Either way, we are gonna hit the ground hard. We are already over the cliff. What we need is people to survive the initial shock of hitting the ground and then develop and execute a strategy to get us back in shape.

I do not know if all the conclusions in this article are correct, but I do know, if Republicans go along with tax increases they will take a beating in 2014. President Clinton did not balance the budget with his tax increases but despite them with the growth of the economy.

Is Mr.Woodhill really saying that not raising taxes on the middle class is the same as subsidizing them? That is strikingly familiar to the statist argument that spending cuts must be ´paid for´.

Government spending is the problem - on more than one level. And believing that the Democrats will negotioate in good faith is one of the reasons the Republicans are called ´the stupid party´.

The only way Republicans might be able to make going over the cliff the fault of the Democrats is to completely withdraw. Go home for Christmas. Let the Democrats craft the bill and pass the bill - with no Republican participation. Even at that I suspect that, with the creative writers in the media and the creative thinkers in the White House, they will find a way to convince the masses that Republicans are to blame.

"The Republican Party is the party of economic growth--or it is nothing."

Finally, someone says it.

Hopefully Boehner is going to let us go "off the cliff", and his loose talk about raising revenues is just cover, so when we crash, he can tell the low information voters that he tried to reach a deal.

On the other hand, obama seems to relish the idea of going off the fiscal cliff. The media has amply cover for him on every one of the dozens of disasters of the first term. They are certain to continue.

LET him ? He doesn´t have enough committed opposition anywhere in congress to prevent him from doing anything he wants !

Just do it. Read from the video clip the 10 states most effected by the expiration of the Bush Tax cuts:
1Conn;2NY;3NJ;4MA;5CA;6MD;7WY;8VA;9MN;10IL.
Too bad so sad.

Just go off the cliff. If there are no serious reductions to government programs as well as entitlement programs, then there should be no discussions. This is on the president!!!!

Do not make a deal! Do not raise the debt limit!

Here is what fascinates me: The two parties have had to reverse positions regarding the fiscal cliff.
Republicans are always talking about spending cuts. Right on cue, the dems wail self-righteously about those evil Republicans throwing Grandma into the snow. Dem tax bills are passed in the dead of night.
But now, it is the GOP talking about tax hikes, and the dems have to come up with spending cuts. Spending cuts are Obama´s Achilles´s heel. He´s never had to say no to anyone before. This is why he is dodging and weaving.
Yesterday, Speaker Boehner hammered Obama about spending cuts. He should hammer him a whole lot more.
Sure, the GOP will be blamed in the first few months of the tax hikes, but eventually it will dawn on the Obamabots that he is the president--how could higher taxes on his pet constituents have happened? Isn´t he in charge?
And, the spending cuts inherent in the fiscal cliff are the ONLY spending cuts on the table.
Cliff diving!

One thing both sides have in common, is that both dems and repubs are saying to go over the cliff. Go look at their sites and they are saying the same thing. Why is this? Who is right, and why?

The ideal for Dems is a one year extension of everything in return for a tax hike this year for the RICH. They can and will do this every year until they need the revenue from the nearly rich.

If we go over the cliff, taxes go up 4.5 trillion, they will need to cut more than the 1 trillion in the Sequester. And the money will need to go to reducing the deficit. This is completely contrary to big government goals.

Let him have his cliff. A majority of Americans want real spending cuts. Walk away, and make it clear that Obama has refused to present a serious proposal to cut spending. You cannot cut spending by negotiating with Democrats. The only way spending will ever be cut is when the House refuses to give him the money.

This is from Forbes. It ain´t your daddy´s magazine anymore. And Steve Forbes has no control over its editorial policy. Pity.

Going over the cliff will do us no good.

This idea that 0bama will have to "own" the consequences is nonsense.

Why? Because the evil Demonrat-0bama-Media complex will relentlessly blame everything on Republicans.

Republicans as usual will be too tongue-tied to effectively counter-narrative and will consequently own ALL the blame.

Another win for Barack the Destroyer.

We have already gone over the cliff,the recession never ended and there are 16 trillion reasons why.

The Republicans are fools ,they are playing into the Democrat,I.E. Obama´s plan and guess who the Obama democrats will blame ? Youguessed it- the Republicans.How dump can the Republicans continue to be? And yes the MSM will help the neoMarxis blaining the GOP.

Detroit has been over the cliff and smashed on the rocks below for years. Yet they still vote exclusively Democrat. The democrats know how to play this game. The idiots who voted for this mess will not wake up if we go over the cliff. They will be easily convinced that they are not to blame and that they should get more free stuff.

If the House does not approve the spending, then there won´t be any. Don´t tell me the Republicans don´t have power. Use it.

a slight increase in tax rates is going to kill this country? good luck with that messaging. do you really think the average person will buy that while watching their tax rates increase?

I hope the repugs are not stupid about this. this is a tactical situation and we need to make sure 0bama owns the upcoming recession.

then issue is spending and that is where we need the repugs to draw the line. i hope they have the courage and integrity to solve the spending problem. they have not had it in the past

If the Republicans continue to be the "Stupid party" and sell out again it will be time to form a new Conservative party. We are split anyway so might as well make it official.

Stand fast, take the sequestration as it is the only way to get any real cuts. On the positive side the tax base will be broader. Having half of our workers pay no Federal taxes is a receipe for disaster and breeds class warfare.

If the government toppled off the cliff many citizens would soar.

Even if the pubbies do the responsible thing, which I doubt they will, how many votes will they lose? As Janis Joplin sang in "Me & Bobby McGee," freedom´s just another word for nothing left to lose.

odumbo´s gonna set us free, and not in the way he imagined!

The Republicans need some talking points so that they repeat the same snappy message. Some suggestions:

Democrats want to suck money out of the private sector.

Obama wants to destroy economic growth.

Obama is giving your money to his cronies.

The Democrats want to change the country into Detroit.

This "cliff" was designed into the law by the Democratic Party over 10 years. The Democrats voted to raise taxes on lower income taxpayers.

All good #27 except for one thing: when is the last time you heard one of the Grand Old Putzes criticize 0bama by name? The Stupid Party trembles at the thought.