John Boehner

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Republican, blasted Speaker of the House John Boehner for ending the congressional session before voting on the Hurricane Sandy relief bill.

John Boehner delivered a sharp response to Harry Reid, who last week accussed the House speaker of running “dictatorship.” The top Republican reportedly told the top Senate Democrat, “Go f— yourself."

“What are you talking about?” Reid replied, at the White House.

"Go f— yourself," Boehner repeated. 

I suggested earlier today that enough House Republicans should support the Senate fiscal cliff bill to see that it passes. But here's an email from a reader whom I know and respect:

The fiscal cliff deal that the Senate passed early this morning is ridiculous in too many ways to count. There seem to be no figures from the Congressional Budget Office and only "very preliminary" figures from the Joint Tax Committee about the real spending and revenue implications. The two month delay of the sequester will make actual governance even more difficult (how is the Pentagon supposed to plan for the rest of the year?).

Bloomberg reports:

CNN reports, "US President Barack Obama offered to back away from his position that tax hikes should begin at $250,000 in annual income, delivering a fresh concession to congressional Republicans as talks to avert the fiscal cliff intensified in Washington."

There is a lot of talk about whether Republicans should "give in" on raising taxes on the top 2 percent of income-earners.

Speaker John Boehner took to the House floor to address the "fiscal cliff" talks.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell blasted President Barack Obama from the Senate floor this morning for not offering any specifics on spending cuts.

"With the Fiscal Cliff fast-approaching, I feel the need to point out something this morning that’s perfectly obvious to most Americans, but which Democrats in Washington still don’t seem to grasp. I’m referring to the fact that any solution to our spending and debt problem has to involve cuts to out-of-control Washington spending," said McConnell.

There is an increasing feeling that if President Obama’s insistence on my way or the highway produces “a plunge over the fiscal cliff,” catastrophes will follow, not least being a downgrading of our credit rating. Perhaps.

Bill Kristol, with Mara Liasson, Ed Rollins, and Evan Bayh, yesterday on Fox News:

And here's the Internet-only aftershow:

First off, it’s not a “fiscal cliff.” What we’re slated to hit as of New Year’s Day, as the Wall Street Journal notes, is a tax cliff. Our fiscal cliff, which drops off into a far deeper canyon, is what looms because of our $16,000,000,000,000 debt and the runaway entitlement spending that fuels it — Medicare, Medicaid, (and now) Obamacare. In truth, the debt deal passed in the summer of 2011 — which the press now says we must scrap if we are to avoid the “fiscal cliff” — was designed to postpone our going over the (actual) fiscal cliff.