Market up +59 just before Obama's 1:30 speech. Hope its not irrational exuberance.

It probably is. They are saying he is not announcing a deal.

Btw, I hope he has tell someone to shut up again. Maybe make them stand in the corner this time.

That was a riot.

I saw that! Did they ever identify who it was?

Some of the Eastern bloc nations in the 80's and China seem to be good examples of it going past just ease dropping on the "bad guys" but of course that will never happen in America. I was born here so it must be the greatest country in the world with only good intentions of catching bad guys.

Looks like they'll get a smaller deal through. It will be interesting to see how House Republicans vote. Not sure if Boehner will be able to get half of them to vote for it if it's just the tax increases on incomes over $400k and the spending cuts are just kicked down the road 6-12 months.

My guess is that the whole agreement with Boehner is that he'll allow the vote, and just enough Republicans will vote yay to get it passed. That way, as many Republicans in the House as possible will be safe from being primaried on this vote alone.

McCain PO'd at the cheap shots that Obama took. I agree with him, seemed very unprofessional and unnecessary to "tease" the GOP.

And the Republican's always speak with such reverence about the President.

Is there anything that doesn't PO McCain these days?

:D

Out of character for him unlike the GOP ... an unnecessarily antagonistic.

The Republicans are outraged that Obama won't stand still and let them use him as a punching bag :P

I'm kind of surprised that the Republicans are fighting so hard over the income level for which tax cuts should expire. Most wealthy people are making it through capital gains, not ordinary income. Just seems like a silly thing to to tie your ship to. Unless they're using it as a bargaining chip to get something they really want.

He was way out of line today. He turned that into a pep rally campaign event.

:lol:

How quaint. That went out the door 30 years ago. Or are you just being defensive on this particular president and don't care/remember about the animosities during Reagan/Bush1/Clinton/Bush2 terms?

I saw the basic story yesterday & couldn't help but think back to William Casey.

You mean they are mad that Obama is finally fighting back rather than caving? Poor dears.

His prostate?

Hopefully they get the milk thing done as that was going to amount to legislative malpractice if they allowed the government to get ripped off like that.

He's responding to someone wanting the President to be nicer. Are you just being offensive on this particular president?

Sounds to me like a few Senators looking for a reason not to support a deal are using Obama's comments, which, by the way, is stupid. If it's good enough to vote for, the President's comments shouldn't matter.

Of course, the current GOP is full of thin-skinned babies.

We are going over the cliff per CNBC

No Vote in the House Tonight; House Republicans to Caucus at 5pm ET Today: Sources

Yup. Boehner can't get anything to pass his crazies in the GOP, so they're going to take their ball and go home. Blame's squarely on them.

Yeah can't believe those crazies would walk away from an agreement to cut zero spending because the voters all can agree there isn't anything we can cut that the federal government spends money on.

Market up 166+.

After hours is up 250+ (as of 4:15pm ET).
24 Hour Stock Market and Forex Data - After-Hours Trading - CNNMoney.com

I must be missing something.

They won't cut spending on shit like SS and Medicare, so any kind of realistic savings is virtually impossible.

They've actually had two opportunities to lock in entitlement cuts and balked both times.

Breaking news. It'll be fun to see how the House reacts to it.

Obama, Senate Republicans near agreement on ‘fiscal cliff’ - The Washington Post

Two months sequester extension. Obama blinked.

Thank God he never helped buy me a car.

Less in tax increases than if he had done nothing and the two month extension lines up with the debt ceiling. The GOP is going to go 2011 times infinity on this debt ceiling vote and Obama's threats to not negotiate are as hollow as can be. He just conceded on taxes while also giving away the only leverage he had in the debt ceiling talks.

Two months from now the social programs will be back on the block. Medicare for sure.

As they should be (along with Defense).

Obama's a shit negotiator.

It's meaningless, but CNN and other media outlets say this deal will "define who's rich" - i.e, a household income of $450,000 or greater. I don't know what this deal has to do at all with determinations of "rich", but this is what the media's going with. It's interesting to me how its so undesirable to be deemed "rich". I was reading this random article in national geographic traveler magazine about some family who took their kids on a extended world vacation for "education" - they said it cost them $150,000, but they insisted they're not a wealthy family. Why the shame in admitting it? I think if you take your kids on a vacation that costs $1,000 you're fucking loaded on a global scale, and if it's $5,000 you're probably fucking loaded on a U.S scale. $150k - you're clearly at or right near the infamous "1%"(though FWIW, the couple in question was Canadian). But there's so much shame in acknowledging as much. There's weird personal financial dynamics going on. It's not cool to be successful.

Lemme see here ... delay spending cuts & raise taxes. And people are bitching about Obama?

I realize that McConnell isn't negotiating from a position of strength so, while I'm unhappy with the terms, I'm not ready to strangle him just yet.

If the House goes along with this crap however, those who approve it (at least the version I've seen in the AP itemized summary) can go hang.

To be fair, it's the 2nd worst deal negotiated in Washington this year. I thought Ariza and Okafor were still viable.

Maybe I missed it, but did they identify the target or total $ in spending cuts with details in 2 months?

So does it matter if this gets passed in a couple days? what happens then?
I guess they struck a deal but the House left??

Theoretically it could be passed in 3 years and backdated tbh. People wouldn't pay more immediately for certain until their quarterly/yearly taxes are due for 2013. Obviously the sequester crap is different. Withholding might change on your paycheck, but you can just change your withholding if you need money in the short term.

I think many believe the rich got us into this mess, they got bailed out, then they got richer. Doesn't sit well with people. Somebody making 500k is not one of those people but some how the rich have suddenly become anybody making more than you.

Waiting for the deeper analysis but hey, thanks Reid, McConnell and Biden.

Glad the AMT got fixed. I'm always worried about it when I boot up TurboTax.

Why don't the Senate take the first pass at the Debt reduction and have the House rubber stamp it.

Senate passes package to avert fiscal cliff; House votes next - CNN.com

anyone have a list of who voted no? Just curious to see who voted against it and why

Five Republicans and three Democrats voted against the bill: Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).

Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) missed the vote.

Don't we pay them $200,000 a year for life not to miss votes like this?

My inclination whenever I see a landslide 95-5 or 98-2 vote is to hear what the smaller numbers reasons are because generally when the d/r machine is all on board it is bad news. Can't wait until Feb for the same nonsense and midnight negotiations that (after twenty pages of on FOFC) will kick the can down the road again. Obviously the no shows are trying to avoid having a vote on the record which is even worse than those who voted for the bill.

A little more insight into the +1 year extension into unemployment benefits. If the economy continues to hum I think this should be it.

Unemployment Insurance To Be Extended, $30 Billion Cost Won't Be Offset

Thats 3 people out of several hundred - statistical odds are that at least one of them is ill, there could also be severe family issues etc. involved.

(ie. I've never understood people railing with the 'but we pay them to do this' angst .... they're humans ffs and I'm sure understood that was an important vote - if they weren't present then chances are there was a good reason)