Obama Cancels Vacation to Resume the Fiscal Cliff Fight

(Reuters) - The "fiscal cliff" deadline is days away and the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama have left town for Christmas.

But even if they were still here, it wouldn't have mattered, according to Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives. He says they were going nowhere to resolving the disagreement over how to fix the nation's fiscal problems.

Last month's dreams of a "grand bargain" of tax hikes and spending cuts seem long gone. They had been reduced to more modest bargains in mid-December, and as 2013 approaches, are on the verge of relegation to a "stop-gap measure," at best the sort of temporary fix that Congress undertook in 2011.

Going over fiscal cliff is not a passive thing. Obama & Reid will try to box GOP into "choosing" btwn cliff or a deal, starting tomorrow.                 

After a nice long holiday weekend, President Obama and members of Congress suddenly remembered that they never took care of that fiscal cliff thing that happens in just six days. The President will end his holiday vacation early, leaving his family behind in Hawaii and heading to Washington on Wednesday night  in order to resume work on budget negotiations. Congress will also return to work on Thursday, giving the two sides just five days (including two weekend days and New Year's Eve) to strike a deal before taxes go up on everyone in America—among other economic disasters.