"Yet the factors that contribute to Washington’s profound gridlock will remain in place next year — a Republican majority in the House that is heavily influenced by staunch conservatives and has demon-strated an unwillingness to com­­promise;"  Here's a PHONY, BIASED article by the Globe.  NOWHERE in the article does it say who is REALLY unwilling to "Compromiosee"...That would be Barack Hussein Obema...Naturally the Globe doesn't report that Obama told John Boehner "John I won. I don't have to cut any spending. The $800 Billion in new revemue (out of the $1600 Billion in new revenue that now I am asking for) is mine for FREE!!". 

Note: to bloggers, I could be blogging all day about this article because the article is phonier than a $3 bill. I am just selecting some main points.... "For Congress, a new year with old maladies" NOTICE in the Globe's "news" (which nobody puts their actual name to as the author, because they know what a phony article this is) the Globe only mentions CONGRESS. ..Globe DOESN'T say that this is a new year with NEW Maladies. The new maladies would be the "Obama Cliff" which was invented by Barack Obama, with help from Valerie Jarrett, David Plouffe, and David Axlerod. ..on Friday the markets absolutely CRASHED. That's right after CNBC (which I was watching) announced, that Barack Obama, after flying in from his vacation in Hawaii, had absolutely DASHED investors hopes when he said that he was not compromising on ANYTHING. ..So, a Republican Senator predicted, Obama's PUBLIC announcement that he was going to meet with all 4 Congressional leaders was nothing more than POLITICAL THEATER...So today, Barack Obama, on "Meet the Press", an Obama-friendly station, Obama make more "political theater" as he discusses the "Obama Cliff" that he created last year.... And Obama will announce his "solution" Demand that the House give him a BLANK CHECK (by abolishing the debt limit). The Globe loves this idea, because it will just BANKRUPT America.

You know "Miker6" you'd make more sense if you got the facts right.  Congress passed the "cliff" not the President.  I know the Pres. signed it, that doesn't mean he created it, he merely agreed to it.  The problem is the Congress, both Dems. and Repubs. and it would help if the public's anger was directed at the correct parties.  Boehner cannot pass a bill with necessary "tax increases', Reid can't move anything with necessary "entitlement reforms", hence a deadlock. 

The only people who can really accomplish what needs to be done are Boehner, Reid and McConnell and until folks like yourself get off this "Obama" problem you have for whatever reason you have it, we will be unable to move the players that need to be moved.  The President does not originate spending nor taxing, he promotes what he believes is right but all of this originates in the Congress. 

You throw out nothing but political spin as if you're being paid by the RNC.  The election is over like the Congress some in public need to grow up and deal with the issues as they exist. 

They all just got raises to the tune of a billion dollars a year, but we don't have a spending problem right.

$500b in tax increases spending cuts- what exactly is the problem?  One side wants to curb spending, one side wants to increase taxes and a venn wants to do both.  Both dems and repubs agreed to this 2-years ago.

You know if the big concern is the deficit then go over the cliff.  Problem solved, right.  But then the economy tanks.  Oh not so hot.  Well then how about a grown up conversation both in the Congress and in the public.

Meanwhile both sides of the kindergarten class cannot even agree on a 60 year old farm bill....

The six-decades-old legislation sets a floor for milk prices. Unfortunately, it was created when the dairy industry was less efficient and less mechanized, making it costlier to operate. The current farm bill—containing a more reasonable level that’s actually below today’s market price—will expire Jan. 1. If it does, D.C. will buy milk at $38.54 per hundredweight, a figure that compares to today's price of 18.62.

Congressional leaders, newly pressured yesterday by President Obama, hope to find a short-term solution that extends the old bill, then work on a new one that would run for years. (Sound familiar?) Congress earlier this year considered two bills that would’ve kept milk prices lower. Both bills were eventually scrapped. One passed in the Senate, but Republicans stopped the progress on a similar measure in the House of Representatives. They demanded legislation with greater cost-savings, though both did include considerable savings. The Senate-backed bill contained $23 billion over 10 years; the House bill had $35 billion.

The brinksmanship, hostage taking and similar tactics have served well the opponents of hope and change. By miring our president and legislature in pointless struggles, and by threatening to blow up hard fought institutions that have been in place for generations, the enemies of progress have stymied action to address emerging issues such as growing income inequality and climate change. As a country, we need to move beyond this, and quickly.

The problem is that most politicians care more about getting re-elected than they care about the welfare of the country. The solution is term limits.

This will not get solved until after January 3rd, when House Speaker John Boehner is re-elected to his post as Speaker. Then he can afford to ignore the Tea Party and make a deal the Democrats and President Obama will accept. This deal can be retroactive to January 1st, thereby nullifying the fiscal cliff after we go over it.

Don't worry about this, it will just spoil your New Year's Eve!

So where are Ready Eddy Markey and others of the Taxashoosetts congreassional claque on the issue of a "fiscal cliff"?  Are they aligned with Howard Dean, that one-time doctor and ex-Vermont governor who thinks it is just peachy for tax hikes for everybody and loads of new spending - typical of the leftest of the lefties?  Does Nikki Tsongas want to end the Afghan war immediately and leave a fewhundred U.S. troops there to train murderous Afghanis?  And the threat against defense spending and its potential to cut loads of money budgeted for Westover AFB and Hanscom AFB, with their hundreds of employees? After all, those cuts would come from the military budget hated by Markey and Tsongas and Dean and all those other left-listed partakers of the Washington hog trough and so beloved by Taxashoosetts party hackers like Deeval the Magnificent Patrick and Bobby DeLeo, with his new dreams of flitting from Beacon Hill to Capital Hill.  This state's herd of disgraces known as congressman dish or dat. . . where do they stand?