RICK SANTELLI ON THE "FISCAL CLIFF"...HE MAKES A LOT OF SENSE...

DEMOCRATS SIMPLY UNWILLING TO AVERT THE "FISCAL CLIFF"...

So, despite repeated assurances from U.S. lawmakers that they would do everything in their power to avert the so-called year-end "fiscal cliff," congressional officials said Thursday they knew of no significant strides toward a compromise and no negotiations have been set. In fact, it appears that 'Dingy' Harry Reid, Democrat, has given up on all attempts to find a solution, saying Thursday that a lack of progress in bipartisan negotiations will most likely put the country over the "cliff." That's hilarious, hearing 'Dingy' talking about being bipartisan. You'll not find a more partisan political hack anywhere on the entire planet than 'Dingy' Harry Reid! Or, a bigger asshole except, for maybe, Chuckie Schumer.

So in what is nothing more than yet another attempt at passing the buck, like these slime bag Democrats always do, Reid simply says it’s now up to congressional Republicans to come up with a plan that both houses would pass and Barry "Almighty" would then sign. Right, like either Reid or that corrupt piece dog squeeze in the Oval Office would ever go along with anything that puts forth the amount of spending cuts that we actually need in order to avoid taking the big plunge. The only thing the Democrats are willing to do is to raise the taxes of those who actually put people to work. But if we actually got more people working and being somewhat self-sufficient they wouldn't need the government, now would they?

So in now deciding to move things a little further into the proverbial gutter, Reid has now seen fit to lie through his teeth, actually going so far as to accuse Boehner of running a "dictatorship" by "not allowing the vast majority of the House of Representatives to get what they want." Says who? "They’ve done nothing," old 'Dingy' said of the GOP-controlled House. "The speaker has just a few days left to change his mind," Reid said, but added: "I don’t know time wise how it will happen." Let's face it, the only 'dictators' that we current have in Washington all, coincidently, happen to have a (D) after their names. From Barry on down, the mentality on the Democrat side has been one where they see no need for any cuts in spending.

After conferring on a conference call Wednesday, the House Republican leadership said they remain ready for talks, but gave no hint they intend to call lawmakers back into session unless the Senate first passes legislation. "The lines of communication remain open, and we will continue to work with our colleagues to avert the largest tax hike in American history, and to address the underlying problem, which is spending," the leadership said in a statement. And as has been before many times and in many ways, what will cause us to go over the cliff, if in fact we do, is not that we have a lack of revenue, it will because Democrats refuse to curb, by even the slightest amount, the level of our mind-numbing spending.

The Senate is due in session Thursday, although the immediate agenda includes legislation setting the rules for government surveillance of suspected spies and terrorists abroad, including Americans, as well as a pork filled measure disguised as a measure that supposed to be providing $60 Billion for victims of Superstorm Sandy. Also something liable to get much discussion is Dianne Feinstein's recent proposal designed to capitalize on the Newtown tragedy and her desire to come up with some form of gun control. Because, as we all know, gun control is much more important of an issue than is avoiding the fiscal cliff. That is the issue that has now, apparently, become the most important priority of the Democrat controlled Senate.

Meanwhile, Barry decided to cut short his portion of the family vacation to Hawaii, flying back to the White House overnight and arriving early on Thursday. He left the Queen and kids behind to finish soaking up the $4 Million that this little 'vacation' taken at the taxpayer’s expense. And so after weeks of what have been described as negotiations, but were actually attempt to be Republicans into submission, Barry again urged lawmakers to agree on a plan that calls for raising taxes on the "wealthiest Americans." Barry said at the White House, "Everybody’s got to give a little bit in a sensible way." I guess what he means is that everybody but the Democrats, because I don’t see them willing to actually give on anything.

The House has no plans to convene, following last week’s rebellion in which conservatives torpedoed Speaker Boehner’s legislation to prevent scheduled tax increases on most, while letting them take effect on million-dollar wage earners. "How we get there, God only knows," the Ohio Republican said of efforts to protect the economy — and taxpayers — from the tax increases and spending cuts. "We have a spending problem. We have to address it, And we’re not going to address it by kicking the can down the road," the speaker said at a news conference late last week when he was asked about setting a vote on a plan that Democrats find acceptable. But that won't happen because the Democrats want us to go over the cliff.

AND THE BLAME GAME INTENSIFIES...

As Barry "Almighty" was cutting short his family's Christmas vacation in order to 'resume' discussions as to how to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of automatic year-end tax hikes and spending cuts, his staff of morons over at the White House, on Wednesday, were busy calling on congressional Republicans to not stand in the way of a resolution in the U.S. Congress. So, I guess, now refusing to kick the can down the road and allowing this mess to worsen into something that future generations will be forced to contend with, is being defined as standing in the way? So, if I have this right, unless Republicans simply, and once again, roll over, they're the ones to be portrayed as being at fault for plunging us over a cliff of the Democrats’ making.

"What we need is for the Senate Minority Leader not to block a vote and for Boehner to allow a vote," said, as near as I can figure, some faceless White House official to ABC News. This moron went on to claim, "The hits from our economy are not coming from outside factors they’re coming from Congressional stupidity." Barry supposedly is now seeking a stripped down deal to prevent tax rates from rising on all but the wealthiest Americans and to stop steep across-the-board spending cuts. The White House, in what was described as being a compromise by Barry, last week proposed a broader package that would have let tax rates stay low for those making up to $400,000. Said to be a compromise, I supposed, because Barry's previous threshold had been $250,000.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner was duly unimpressed with Barry’s offer and sought, unsuccessfully, to push his own proposal through Congress, but members of his own Republican Party balked at rate hikes of any kind. Talks broke down after that with Barry and lawmakers leaving town for the holiday. The focus will now shift to the Senate for a deal, where Barry "Almighty" will rely on an ally, Senate Majority Leader 'Dingy Harry' Reid, to work out a bill that the top Senate Republican, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell can agree to. The House must also pass the measure. According to the same buffoon of a White House official said that a broader effort to trim the nation's massive budget deficit will simply have to wait.

Congressional stubbornness risks again damaging the fragile economy, just as the nation's near-default in 2011 - the result of a stalemate over raising the national borrowing limit - dealt a nascent economic recovery a setback, this same administration official went on to say. "If you think about the possibility of Congress failing to act to avert the fiscal cliff, combined with the abomination of what occurred in the summer of 2011, hits to our economy aren't coming from external factors, they're coming from congressional stupidity," the official bellowed. Well that's quite a mouthful. The problem is, though, that it's all nothing but a bunch of political bullshit! Democrats don't want to incur ANY spending cuts, and spending is the root cause for the fiscal cliff.

Look, this White House moron whoever he, or she, is, is nothing but a complete and utter fraud in trying to blame anything on the Republicans. Boehner already caved on taxes once, but it wasn't enough for Barry and his team of political miscreants. If this jerk wants to go around shooting his, or her, mouth off that's one thing, but the fact that they insist on blaming just one side makes it pretty clear, and pretty quickly, that he, or she, is doing nothing more than talking our his, or her, ass as they attempt to score some cheap political points. Republicans were permitted to keep control of the House for one reason, and they must not allow themselves to be bullied into caving by a bunch of brain-dead White House malcontents.

ONE MAN'S VACATION IS ANOTHER MAN'S...

BARRY STRESSING OVER THE 'FISCAL CLIFF'

Our "Lord and Savior," Barack Obama, just-completed his portion of what has been described as being a 'family vacation', heading home after five days or roughly 120 hours. This little respite of his, having taken place in that little known part of Asia, known as Hawaii, was the vacation many guys can only dream about. But I think Barry differs from most in that, because while there was a rather intense focus on recreation alone or with the guys, there was a relatively light schedule of actual family-oriented events.

Barry played golf three out of the five days he was on Oahu, engaging in marathon sessions of up to six hours for a total of about 17 hours our on the course. He spent another three or four hours 'toning' up in the gym. No doubt he views all of this relaxation as his way of dealing with the rigors of his office, but it also makes quite clear his lack of any deep concern regarding the consequences to be faced by everyday folks should we actually make the plunge over that much talked about fiscal cliff.

Anyway, by contrast, our 'Dear Beloved Leader' spent about two hours on the beach with Queen Michelle and the kids, and another couple of hours hiking with them. While this weird little family unit certainly got some quality time in while at their rather exclusive vacation home, most of the fun stuff was to be had by the head dude and his assorted posse. On both Monday and Wednesday, the family barely got to see Barry until sometime after 3:00 pm, when he had finished his workouts and rounds of golf.

Wednesday’s little golf outing was Barry's 19th of 2012 and the 111th of his presidency and it featured longtime pals Bobby Titcomb, Mike Ramos, and Greg Orme, the same posse that was with him when he was out on the course on Monday. But alas, our 'Fearless Leader' returned back to the 'grind' late this morning, back in Washington where his new 'pal' will be Speaker John Boehner, whom Barry hopes to bully and threaten into coming around to his way of averting the fiscal cliff, by simply raising taxes.

AND THE CLIFF EDGES CLOSER…OR WE EDGE CLOSER TO IT…EITHER WAY...

Well here's a little something that shouldn't come as a very big surprise to anyone with a brain and who has been paying even the least amount of attention to what's been going on here, unless of course you're Barry "Almighty" or nearly any congressional Democrat. The Social Security program ran a $47.8 Billion deficit in fiscal 2012 as the program brought in $725.429 Billion in while paying out $773.247 for benefits and overhead expenses. And that ain't just me saying who's pointing that out, that's coming straight from the official data published by Social Security Administration.

The Social Security Administration also released some rather interesting new data which revealed that the number of supposed workers now collecting disability benefits has managed to hit the pretty remarkable record of 8,827,795 in December, and that's up from 8,805,353 in November. The overall number of Social Security program beneficiaries—including retired workers, dependent family members and survivors and disabled workers and their dependent family members—also hit a record in December, climbing from 56,658,978 in November to 56,758,185 in December.

In 2011, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was an average of 112.556 million full-time workers in the United States, of whom 17.806 million worked full-time for local, state or federal government. That left an average of only 94.750 million full-time private sector workers in the rest of the country. For all of you dim-witted liberals what that equates to is that now for every 1.67 Americans who worked full-time in the private sector in 2011, there is now 1 person collecting benefits from the Social Security administration. Now how does that make sense to anybody but a unionized government worker?

Despite its fiscal 2012 "net cash flow" deficit, as Social Security Administration (SSA) describes it, the agency was able to book an on-paper "increase" of $64.580 Billion in the Social Security Trust Funds. That, SSA says, is because the U.S. Treasury "paid" the trust funds $112.398 in "interest" in fiscal 2012 on the historical surpluses in Social Security taxes that the Treasury siphoned off to cover other spending by the federal government. As of the end of calendar year 2011, according to SSA, the Social Security Trust Fund equaled approximately $2.678 Trillion.

The last time the Social Security program actually ran a "net cash flow" surplus was in fiscal 2009. In that year, Social Security’s revenues exceeded its benefit and overhead payments by $19.358 billion. You might also remember that that was year one of the Barry "Almighty" presidency. Because what followed in fiscal 2010 is that Social Security ran a $36.8 Billion DEFICIT; and, in fiscal 2011, it ran a $47.975 Billion DEFICIT. Anybody other than me see the nasty little trend developing here? I mean, come on folks, this ain't rocket science or brain surgery. It's simple economics.

For those who don't know, there are two Social Security Trust Funds: the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund. The OASI Trust Fund covers benefits to retired workers and their families and deceased workers families. The DI Trust fund covers benefits to disabled workers and their families. The trust funds are required 'by law' to hand over all surplus revenues to the Treasury and the Treasury then provides "special issue" non-marketable bonds, which are essentially nothing more than electronic IOUs, to the trust funds in return for the cash.

These so-called "IOUs" then become part of the national debt. When the Treasury pays "interest" that increases the value of the Social Security Trust Funds it does so by increasing the number of IOUs it owes the trust funds. When the Social Security program runs a net cash flow deficit, as it has in the last three fiscal years, the Treasury needs to borrow cash from the "public" to keep the program funded. As of Dec. 21, the federal government’s debt was $16.336 Trillion. If this all sounds pretty insane, that's only because it is. But it's our own fault because this is what we've allowed those in Washington to get away with for decades.

WELL, AIN'T THAT MIGHTY 'WHITE' OF OBAMA?

So while, at least up to this point, Barry "Almighty" has been busy performing his best, and rather personal, rendition of Nero fiddling while Rome burns, he has apparently now decided to cut his taxpayer funded Christmas vacation short and head home. His doing so allows him to, at least, appear to be interested in averting that much talked about headlong plunge over the 'fiscal cliff.' So with a yearend deadline now just around the corner and with us being no closer to reaching any sort of a meaningful 'deal' that would prevent us from going over, Barry is now said to be heading back to Washington. Big freakin deal!

According to those stellar folks in the White House, Barry is expected to arrive back in Washington early Thursday. Of course, Queen Michelle and the couple's two daughters will remain in Hawaii until Jan. 6. In the past, Barry's end-of-the-year holiday in his 'native' state have stretched well into the new year. The first family left Washington last Friday night. Congress is expected to return to Washington on Thursday. Let's be honest here, what, if anything, can we expect to take place with them in town that wouldn't have with them all being out of town? Especially when all the Democrats want is higher taxes.

Without some sort of action by Barry and Congress, automatic budget cuts and tax increases are set to begin in January, which many economists say 'could' send the country back into recession. Back into a recession? So far, Barry and congressional Republicans have been unable to reach agreement on any alternatives. Lawmakers have expressed little but pessimism for the prospect of an agreement coming before Jan. 1. On Sunday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, (RINO), said she expects any action in the waning days of the year to be "a patch because in four days we can't solve everything." Can't or won't?

With Barry essentially laughing off Speaker John Boehner's plan to allow tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes, lawmakers are becoming increasingly worried that no deal can be reached. They are already preparing their arguments about who will be to blame if the new year comes without an agreement. Personally I see that as being a no brainer, it's the moron in the Oval Office. Barry already has scaled back his ambitions for a sweeping budget bargain. Before leaving the capital on Friday, he called for a limited measure that extends Bush-era tax cuts for most people and staves off federal spending cuts.

Barry and family were spending the holiday at a rented home near Honolulu. On Christmas Day, hoping for a nice little photo op, no doubt, they took time out of their very busy schedule to put in an appearance with members of the military in order to express thanks for their service. While at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii's Anderson Hall, Barry actually said, "One of my favorite things is always coming to base on Christmas Day just to meet you and say 'thank you.'" He went on to say that being commander in chief was his greatest honor as president. What a load of crap, he hates the military!

Look, anything that Barry does is meant to do one thing and one thing only. And that is to do nothing more than to create the false impression that he genuinely does not want us to go over the cliff. How many really believe that he cares one iota if he'll be blamed when things get worse? He couldn't care less, he wants things to get worse, he's on a mission here to wreak as much havoc as he possibly can. His goal to lay waste to the economic system that provides the most opportunity that then allows the most people to become the most prosperous. And hence not need government. He wants people to need government.