If the American people sit around waiting for Congress to fix things, or they wait and put their lives on hold wondering if they will be taxed another half a latte a day to pay for their borrowing, like these articles suggest, the American people really need to get a grip on reality. Forget Congress and just ignore them - they don't fix anyway. Tighten the belt a quarter notch and GET ON WITH LIFE. You only have so much time, and only fools plan their lives around tax breaks and waiting for Congress.

"US still faces political fights on spending, debt" - But clearly it doesn't these same criminal gangs that got the naion here have again shown they ahve no intention of doing anything other than more unsustainable spending, and more taxing to pretend they are being responsible. What the US faces is more political theatre of the unethical and criminal. this will continue until the people hold these gangs and their memebrs accountable for their acts against our population.

This is the real fiscal battle..the fiscal cliff was just noise compared to this. Here, the House GOP holds all the aces, and can force the administration to get real about living within our means. Watch for the administration use every scare tactic in their playbook.

Until BOTH sides get serious about creating a long term plan, heck, even a medium term plan, the nation will never be able to get back on track. How can any business or consumer make plans knowing that in two months more fights will erupt and the best the government will do is kick the can down the road another couple of months. We need elected officials who are serious about this situation and not just pandering to their special interests. And, that responsibility is up to us. We need to look past the campaign rhetoric and elect people who are serious about the whole country and not just a certain demographic.

The government takes in about 3 billion dollars per day, and they spend about 11 billion. Why do you think we have a problem?

When Bush was ballooning government by 30% and borrowing like mad to prop up the GOP theories, we said he was going to get us into a position of such debt that if we had a recession, the usual methods of recovery would barely pull us back... and it happened... We now walk a tightrope and the recovery has to be in several stages - we are now in a fine line between borrowing and debt reduction and growing the economy... Put the numbers to it - we can't grow the economy out of it in a decade unless the economy grows at 8%, a disastrous rate of growth; we can't pay the debt down to 50% of GDP for 15 years even if we use all of those years' GDP growth to pay down debt; and if we take more from than HALF an expected 3% growth from the economy, we will tank - and we have interest to pay... It's not a game... It will take 15-20 years of stern will and strong resolve and careful investment to pay off Bush and the GOP's policies of borrowing to keep you happy, people... Taking the wage earners pile of cash from Social Security and giving it to the US government isn't going to help, even if it was the governments money, which it isn't... Quick fixes aren't going to help... Numbers - no quick fix. Numbers - 20 years of slow pay down... Numbers - Defense can't all be kept at today's level -- we need that money to keep the infrastructure here, not for selfish egos... As it was warned when everyone was waving flags and gearing up for the Mideast wars - Bin Laden's plan was not to take us down by bullets, but by using our arrogance to cause us to overextend and fall. Few listened and we spent like madmen... It's not a game, we can't do it all. Numbers - 20 years. And Bin Laden knew that Americans have short wills. Numbers say long haul, no quick fixes this time.

"We need to look past the campaign rhetoric and elect people who are serious about the whole country and not just a certain demographic" .... Unfortunately, with the two major parties controlling the election laws and election process, we don't get the choice to do anything about it.

We have great spending problems, despite the passage of a cliff bill we still have tax problems in that the tax code is way too complicated and needs fairness and simplification adjustments!! Congress is a joke period! Most of these people are bought and paid for by special interest groups and their voting records are reflective of that influence. The President providing a pay raise for these do-nothing people is disgusting! (I generally back the Prez on many issues but this raise is wrong! This gives me common ground with the Swiss Miss for the first time! You got this one right Michelle!) I would love to see total campaign finance reform, term limits, and a restructuring of how congress does business. I also think the Supreme Court needs term limits and perhaps a new way of being selected.

We have great spending problems, despite the passage of a cliff bill we still have tax problems in that the tax code is way too complicated and needs fairness and simplification adjustments!! Congress is a joke period! Most of these people are bought and paid for by special interest groups and their voting records are reflective of that influence. The President providing a pay raise for these do-nothing people is disgusting! (I generally back the Prez on many issues but this raise is wrong! This gives me common ground with the Swiss Miss for the first time! You got this one right Michelle!) I would love to see total campaign finance reform, term limits, and a restructuring of how congress does business. I also think the Supreme Court needs term limits and perhaps a new way of being selected.