Chickens over the cliff

What happens when the mark you're mugging takes the gun away and points it at you? Are the republicans about to find out? This may be the appropriate image, but the reality according to the beltway is we are hurtling toward a "fiscal cliff." Politically, it is the right move on the part of Democrats. The trick will be to make the gop own it. From WaPo:

"Democrats are making increasingly explicit threats about their willingness to let nearly $600 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts take effect in January unless Republicans drop their opposition to higher taxes for the nation’s wealthiest households.
Emboldened by signs that GOP resistance to new taxes may be weakening, senior Democrats say they are prepared to weather a fiscal event that could plunge the nation back into recession if the new year arrives without an acceptable compromise."

While letting the republicans obstruct their way to letting taxes go up on everyone two years ago and then letting them explain why super-rich parasites need tax cuts more than the other 98% would have been the way to go, this time around they have something they really want to protect.

"Obama assured Hill Democrats during a White House meeting that he would veto any attempt to maintain the Bush tax cuts on income over $250,000 a year, according to several people present. It also echoes the dismissive response by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to Republicans seeking to undo scheduled reductions in Pentagon spending that even Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has said would be “devastating” to national security."

How it will be devastating is not clear, is North Korea going to invade if we trim back a little on half the world's military spending? Devastating to lockheed and blackwater's profit margin maybe (though I doubt it), but probably not to national security. But this is how the story is wrung out inside the beltway.

Update:
Apparently and in defiance of "conventional wisdom" both taxing the rich and cutting "defense spending" are actually pretty popular in polls. Here's to doing nothing!