...or if they bring us to the absolute brink of the financial cliff in order to try and avoid compromising even a single bit on revenues.

Let's not forget why we're here in the first place: they already held the President hostage to the detriment of the United States in the debt ceiling debate. It was amusing to watch Paul Ryan go on about how under Obama we've seen the nation's credit rating fall and now we face deep military cuts, when he was one of the architects of both of those events. Let's remember that the reason the credit rating of the US fell had nothing to do with our debt or deficits. It had only to do with the prospect that the Congress would stand in the way of the US meeting its debt obligations. Boehner is already compromising with Ried, but it will be for naught. He was on record as saying that there was no chance that he would let the Tea Party hold up raising the debt ceiling, and we saw that has no control over them. Cantor will again use this as an occasion to raise his profile in the party, and the proof is in the recent history that he cares a lot more about himself than about good governance. I suspect another kick-the-can type deal to be struck in teh last week of December and nothing more. They will keep doing this until they have a Republican in the White House again, and you, I, John Boehner or the President has no way to stop them.