Tagged: Fiscal Cliff

Yes, President Obama and congressional leaders are scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. ET to discuss how to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

But, no, that isn't inspiring much talk this morning of a breakthrough before the midnight New Year's Eve deadline:

A wind energy tax credit is set to expire at the end of this year, but Kansas Governor Sam Brownback is still holding out hope that lawmakers in Washington will extend the credit.

President Obama is "cutting short" a vacation that he'd already said he would cut short. "See you next week," he told reporters last week before leaving for Hawaii. The president is now due back at the White House on Thursday, which is pretty much what was expected. His family will stay in Hawaii until after the New Year.

Senators are also coming back to Washington, but many aren't likely to get to the Capitol until Thursday evening.

The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to vote Thursday on a proposal advanced by Speaker John Boehner to avoid the "fiscal cliff."

As the President and Republican Congressional leaders continue to butt heads in Washington, the “fiscal cliff” and its 10 percent across-the-board spending cuts loom.

It's not the cutting, it's the uncertainty.

That's the lament these days from governors and mayors awaiting the outcome of federal budget negotiations.

They know they're likely to take a hit; they just don't know how bad it's going to be.

"How do you budget for the unknown?" wonders Ed Long, the county executive in Fairfax County, Va. "Our worst fear is that by [the federal government] not acting, the economy is going to get worse going forward."

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt says badly administered mental health programs should be fixed as a remedy, rather than blame guns, for violence like the Connecticut school killings.