Congress created the “cliff” to force their own hands, but it’s the President’s fault they couldn’t agree.

In a tremendous irony, Republican requests for lower tax rates, a high estate tax threshold, and a permanent AMT fix — combined with Democratic requests to delay the sequester, include a “doc fix” for Medicare physicians, and extend emergency unemployment benefits — have left the parties negotiating toward a plan that would result in no net deficit reduction over 10 years on a current-policy baseline, according to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.

Congress created the fiscal cliff — including the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the sequester, and other measures — intentionally, and members have insisted for months that it would force both parties to agree to a less austere, bipartisan deficit reduction plan.
tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com

Their approval rating has to be somewhere below 7% at this point.