No Fiscal Cliff Deal in Sight

This afternoon, President Obama called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Speaker John Boehner to the White House for a last ditch meeting on averting the fiscal cliff. After about a little more than an hour, those leaders began to emerge from the White House. None of them addressed the press or gave any statements on the progress, or lack thereof, in the fiscal cliff talks.

If no deal is struck, tax rates on nearly all taxpayers will increase beginning January 1, and the Department of Defense will suffer cuts so severe that outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that the US military will be force to discharge thousands of active duty military and downsize to a force smaller than the US had prior to World War I.