And how can man die better
than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods,

We are in a catch-22. The only way to get out of a big tax increase is to have a big tax increase and the only way to get spending cuts is to not pass spending cuts. I say the Republicans do like the Democrats did in Wisconsin and leave town and not vote on anything.

The photo from he article shows an exasperated Boehner trying to make a point and Barry doing
his " I won, shut up " dismissive hand gesture.
Barry is demanding and up or down vote on his original proposal.
Republicans should call his bluff.
But, they should use The Coulter Option and vote present which makes Obama
and the Democrats own the entire mess.
Voting No will only help the media and the Democrats place blame on the Republicans.

#1 I couldn´t agree more!!!

If the only way to force spending cuts is to go over the cliff, I am in favor. We need to reduce federal government spending by a huge amount to get it below 20% of GDP.

To do that, we need to have genuine cuts in federal expenditure amounting to about 15% of current expenditure, or genuine cuts of $480 billion in the annual budget.

The cliff was the best plan all along.

FTA:Obama´s basic compromise is, "I won the election; vote for my plan----There are also Republicans who were voted in to stop his tax and spend plan.

The dims are pushing us over the cliff just like that woman pushed that man onto the subway track. Both have the same results- one the death of a man, the other the death of a nation.

Right now, the cliff - as painful and unfair that it is - seems the "least bad" option. Damn the torpedoes; damn the press. The straight extension is already on Reid´s desk. Any new strings will benefit the Dems politically at the expense of the country and our children´s future. It´s time for some backbone. It´s time to call.

It´s strange how many people actually believe our elected give a scatological sample what happens. The goof-offs in Washington still get their pay, their benefits, their medical care. their cars, their royal treatment, their retirement. What is it to them if the people suffer at all? Nothing. It´s all a bunch of high rollers acting like they actually care. They lost caring many, many years ago!

The Republican House passd an extension of the Bush tax cuts and sent it to the Senate. Reid wouldn´t even call it for a vote. So, even if a Democrat introduces the Obama plan in the House, why in the world would Boehner not kill it? And why in the world is he not telling Obama that his plan would be DOA in the House and to shove it you know where?

This is what all Republicans should be saying, "the President and the Senate Democrats aren´t serious about reducing the deficit, or balancing the budget since they´re proposing to increase spending more than the tax increases on the rich".

"Really, more spending than we have now which is costing Americans over one trillion dollars each of the last 4 years".

"Makes President Bush´s $450 billion deficit look thrifty now doesn´t it"?

Boy, look at that self-satisfied gigolo smirk on The Won´s face in that photo with Boehner. Whatever his concerns are, the well-being of the country is not among them.

#13, which leads to the question I´ve never seen answered, "How did the $800B stimulus money make it into the baseline budget ? Wasn´t that supposed to be a one time thing? We went from a $400B deficit to ongoing $1T + for the foreseeable future. Where is this money going?

Yes. Do it.

Reid won´t bring the GOP bill to the floor but remember Obe´s plan did go to the floor of both houses and received 0 votes.
So the entire story is the dems are afraid to allow any vote at all.

A bipartisan bill passed Congress and was signed by President Obama. Why did they create the cliff except for the thrill of jumping off? Raise taxes on everyone. Take back all of Obama´s silly redistribution schemes. Force puny cuts of 100 billion a year. Don´t authorize an increase on the debt limit so he is forced to reduce spending to match the new revenue.

Vote present, abstain, let them have it. Our choice is homicide or suicide. This has nothing to do with fiscal matters - this is about the destruction of the Republican Party. We´ll go over this cliff, Obama will introduce legislation to restore tax cuts and be the hero to the brain dead left and our low-information voter. For the last few years, I thought my retirement might be boring. I never thought I would witness the demise of freedom in such a short time.

Yes. Vote present, abstain. AND for heaven´s sake be bold about it later in front of the press. Don´t let us hear any more of this "..and we´re leaving open the door of negotiation," silliness either!!!! These poliicians would have us think these decisions require such immense brain power and it´s all sooooo hard. No. Its only hard now because they have all been kicking the can down the road for many years. Boehner, do the right thing. Then go home. Let Obama deal with it. HE won.

Obama loves the perception that his tax increases will immediately go into new spending,because that´s what his base voted for.What his vampire base doesn´t realize is Obama´s big donors are firt in line for new spending and thhere might be a few crumbs left for them.

I didn´t know it until a couple weeks ago,that part of the stimulus was beefing up earned income checks.,like a free $4000 wasn´t enough. This is the kind of thing this creep did to buy voter enthusiasm.

Did that spending do the economy any good?Of course not because the majority of it went to big retail which doesn´t pay their employees much because the margins are slim.A lot of it went south of the border via the drug trade.

The money also went to keep government workers on the job at the state level.Never mind that it´s Obama´s policies that are causing state deficits because of the lack of hiring in the private sector.

Obama,ironically creates messes that empower him to increase spending.

The best thing is to go over the cliff and stay there. This country is in serious jeopardy as the number of those not paying any Federal income tax at all approaches 50%, while we are building a permanent unemployed class with benefits seemingly that are approaching infinity and disability claims are the new, early, early retirement plans.

I really do not want to pay more taxes but I prefer a system that more evenly takes from all of us rather than makes of us a nation of envy rather than aspiration.

While the political rherotic soars nobody seems to notice that fiscal year 2013, which started October 1, 2013 the borrowing makes the excesses of the past few years seem paltry.

For the first time the Social Security system has paid out more than it took in by $47B, putting it in the red. This only happened because Social Security revenues was foolishly cut by more than 20% for the past few years.

The Democrat strategy is to build a permanent voting class that pays absoulutely no taxes whatsoever but can be counted on to reliability vote for greater and greater taxes for those who have to support them. The Republicans, seemingly the inept, stupid party keep falling victim to this strategy.

So one more chance, let the sequestration on cuts go into effect, let the tax rates go up, stop permanent unemployment compensation, restore Social Security revenue and cut more spending or we won´t have to worry about falling off the clift, we will drop of Mt. Everest.