The "tax and spend" Democrats have no real motivation to avoid the "fiscal cliff." Everybody with a job is going to have to pay more taxes. Without tax money to buy votes there is no Democrat party.
My guess is that the Democrats will wait and see how much the Republicans will be blamed for the potential economic disaster. The Republicans are being blamed for anything and everything because they object to out of control spending by the Democrats. Democrat voters agree that Republicans are bad; the functionally illiterate Dems are happy because they get Obamaphones and free health care. What a deal!
I would suggest this....if we arrive on 2 January, with the fiscal cliff going into full operation, and yet really noticeable to the common American....then the story rapidly dwindles. No one will care.
So I’m predicting this. On 2 January....almost nothing with the fiscal cliff is noticed. By the end of January....other than some freezes on hiring, and some conferences cancelled for the year....nothing is noted.
By March, around 10k government employees who are at or near retirement will be offered a bonus to leave now (max at $25k, and it’s taxed anyway). Nothing much is really noticed.
By July, there are fewer TSA folks and you start to require another thirty minutes at the airport. Your application for a new passport takes an extra ten days. But still, most folks don’t notice anything.
By December of 2013, the fiscal cliff thing is considered a joke by half the public. But as we get into 2014....more intense cuts start to occur...strangely enough in an election year. Blame now resurfaces toward the Republicans. We made almost a full year without complaint, and now seem to notice various little issues each week.