Right now down there. That, crickets, the sound of nothing going on. It is a sad sight indeed. Three days and 11 hours from now we will be over the cliff. The hill does not seem like a behive of activity today, but a key meeting is set for today. In about two hours time at the white house the congressional leaders will be there with the president. Good afternoon, everybody. Im tyler mathisen, Michelle Carusocabrera is with us and eamonja javers is joining us. Mary. Tyler, weve been wait in see mode on wall street as investors react to any kind of signs or headlines that come out about possible progress on a deal, a mini deal is what traders are expecting now to avoid going over the fiscal cliff. Basically weve been held in about 100 point range from the dow. It is midpoint. As you might expect on the second to last trading day, volume is light. 1 billion shares changed hands. On average we get about 3. 2 billion every day. Take a look at the vix. Its a measure of fear. Yesterday popping above the 20 level. It is something we havent seen in five months. It is above that right now but, again, it has come off its highs of the day. We do have some movement in the transports today, this in the wake of the news of that port strike has been averted, at least for another 30 days. That was impacting some of the truckers because there was concerns they wouldnt have some inventory to truck around the country. Theyve turned around and transports actually having retreated yesterday. They did move into the green a little while ago. Also look at the consumer discretion nar ris because this is reflecting reaction to the news. Strike has been averted as well. Keep in mind there are a number of retailers in this group. There were concerns, of course, that a Retail Supply chain would be disrupted if we had a strike at the ports along the east coast and the gulf of the mexico. In the wake of it being averted for another 30 days weve seen some strength in home depot and lowes of course. Those stocks benefitting from days news on pending home sales which once again was very strong. The dow up 68 points. Michelle, back to you. All right, mary. Washington, the country wants to know are you going to rise above or are you going to throw us off the cliff . Another meeting set for the white house. Eamonjavers is at the white house. We could fix this on the back of an envelope. Thats not hard to imagine. Whats hard is getting washington agree to it. That sound that you hear is the sound of thousands of reporters trying to read the minds of five people, the four congressional leaders and the president of the United States who are going to be in that room at 3 00 this afternoon. A whole lot of mind reading going on. Not a whole lot of fact to work with. What i am told is if you want to understand where the president s brain is as he goes into this meeting today, youve got to look back at his remarks just after 5 00 p. M. On friday last week in which he laid out his vision for sort of a shorter term emergency kind of a deal. With that in mind, let me lay out what barack obama could propose in this meeting today if he lays something out. It would start with extending the tax cuts for those under 250, maybe 400 as some have said and up to 500,000. Unemployment extenders for those on unemployment who face that being turned off at the end of the year. A medicare doc fix as they call it and a turnoff of the sequester in exchange for some larger spending cuts tpd. That is the outline of what a small deal could look like. Guys, we dont have a whole lot of information on whats going to happen in that meeting. I should also mention that joe biden, the Vice President , will be in there. Of course, he led some of the early talks and they were all about trying to avoid this problem a year or more ago. Those got nowhere. The talks over the summer got nowhere and so far the talks that are going on now have gotten nowhere as well, michelle. Eamon, the last two things that you talked about, the doc fix for medicare, you dont cut what you pay doctors for medicare. Thats right. Turning off the sequester, theyre talking about spending more money. No talk anywhere in his plan about any kind of spending cuts. Yeah. Remember, im laying out sort of a potential plan that the president could offer. Youre right about those two items. Also take a look at whats not on there. What the president didnt mention on friday of last week is the debt ceiling. Now we have treasury secretary tim geithner reminding the country and the world that the United States is going to start to run up against the debt ceiling now on monday so that might have to be part of this ultimate deal as well. The president didnt mention it last week but the treasury secretary has certainly under the ante and the drama. Thank you, tyler. Eamon, thank you so much. Representative David Schwikert is a representative from arizona. He is opposed to any tax increases. Welcome back. Happy to be here. I hope what you heard what eamon reported there and apparently the outlines of what the president is calling for would be to extend the bush era tax cuts but not for people in the plus 250 or 500,000 level. Is that in any sense a deal that you could go along with under any circumstances . It really isnt. Once again, this is something i think thats important that the markets start to absorb is this sort of theater were engaged in. This may be our vision for 2013 because were going to have the debt ceiling, were going to have the issues within the obama care, dodd frank, nlrb issues that are coming up affecting the market. We have to deal with the reality. Its about spending. Its about the debt and when the president s proposal, original proposal would produce, what, about 80 billion next year . That would just cover the incremental increase in interest costs on our debt. Were avoiding the truth. Were avoiding the reality and thats why a lot of us are very cranky about some of the lets do a patch work, lets push it off into the future because were going to crash and burn under our own debt. If youre cranky, think about how the American Public feels right now, congressman. They are very cranky that you folks have not been able to make any seeming head way, either on the spending side, which i agree with you is the truly important one that we have to address. Exactly. Or on the tax side. But nobody seems to have moved this ball very far forward unless i and everybody else is missing a heck of a lot. On the spending side, what precise specific spending cuts would you like to see and could you buy into, any spending cuts of the defense establishment . Oh, sure. Hey, look, you guys are one of the good guys. Youve started to run the debt clock as well as the time clock so the American People are starting to understand how fat that 16. 3 trillion is just growing and growing and growing. The reality of it is if we dont deal with the explosion in entitlement costs, the baby boom is now retiring so what would you like to see done there specifically . Apparently theres no major fix on entitlements coming as any deal this weekend actually. Thats actually where my frustration is. We go through a month here of agony and every time i turn on my television the talk of the fiscal cliff but the thing thats actually driving us off the fiscal cliff is our debt and the explosion in the entitlements and yet thats the very thing we avoid dealing with. You ask about what we should do . Look, those on the republican side on the house have voted for the ryan budget and others which actually gave a vision of how to put Market Forces into entitlement spending. If you dont like the idea, give us another suggestion, but dont do what nancy pelosi has done where saying spending cuts are off the table. In that case were negotiating with ourselves again. Im sorry, we have to leave it there. Congressman, have a pleasant flight back across the country tomorrow evening. Its always a joy. All right. Lets hear from the other side. Representative Allyson Schwartz is a democrat from pennsylvania. Michelle, jump in. She sits on the ways and means and budget committees. Thanks so much for joining us, representative. You just heard that whole discussion. Why is it, madam, that the democrats seem so resistant to any kind of reform to entitlements . Well, actually, thats not true. As you certainly know, the president offered very, very straightforward spending cuts, over a trillion dollars hes already done. Another trillion, 1 or 2, that the president put on the table in his last offer. It included 400 billion in savings from medicare and 200 billion from savings in medicaid. Those are not easy, but the democrats have actually put medicare on a path to greater sustainability. You really believe that . Oh, absolutely. Were seeing it already. The kinds of well, you have to look at some of the cuts that we made in the insurance industry. We were making overpayments in the insurance industry. That should be invested in medicare directly and we did that. Of course the what about means testing . What about means testing for medicare . We thought youre very focused on raising taxes on the wealthy. If you want the wealthy to spend more, you could means test. You could say, you know what, if youre worth several million, your premiums should go up. If youre a billionaire, maybe you shouldnt have access to government financed health care at all. If the republicans tomorrow said to you, you know what, you can have all the tax increases you want. Well raise taxes on people who make 250,000 or more would you then be willing to do serious entitlement reform . Let me just say that in fact we do means test millionaires right now. There is a serious means testing. Not by much. A millionaire who gets medicare is nothing. It costs them nothing relative to their net worth, nothing. You know what, if the republicans would move, and they havent yet, you just heard it, no willingness on the part of the republicans to do anything. If they did, you would do what . We already put 600 billion on the table to get savings out of medicare medicaid. Those are entitlements. Thats pure cuts to spending that you claim are going to come from waste, fraud, abuse, etc. Or just from cutting certain programs. Youve got to decrease demand in some parts of medicare and a great way to do it is for people who have the money to spend their own money instead of spending young peoples money and working peoples money to pay for wealthy seniors retirement. Look, if you consider wealthy seniors over 85,000, thats the cutoff we have right now, they are means tested. Are there other possibilities . Potentially. Understand, if youre only talking about multimillionaires and youre saying we should never ask them for a little more in taxes. Pay 4 more on millionaires. Im not saying that. If the democrats said theyd raise taxes on everybody you want you know what, i love raising taxes. I think you put the question out there. We dont love raising taxes. The facts is, if youre serious about this debt, if youre serious about deficit reduction, we have to be able to both get some new revenue. Asking millionaires to pay a little bit more in marginal rates. We have to get serious about how were going to do spending cuts in the right way. Republicans have said department of defense shouldnt be on the table. We shouldnt demand more of the 50 seat accountability from across government. We are putting spending cuts on the table and investing for Economic Growth on the table. We need to stop having a discussion about who the bad guy is and start getting serious about getting this done. Good luck on sunday night. Were all looking forward to seeing what you guys get done on sunday night when youre back in session. Its good to have you on. We have a market flash. Michelle, want to take a check on the share of facebook today. Reversing some of the losses on reports that ichb stay gram had lost 25 of its users since it changed its service. The data came from a firm called app data. Doing a bit of a deeper dive saying that the drop in instagram daily users actually happened around christmas time. Thats when people are traveling, when theyre on vacation, when theyre not logging into facebook. They also note that we saw similar trends in Companies Like skype, pandora, and pinterest. So not necessarily seeing the decline coming from when instagram changed that policy. You can see there facebook is trending not over the flat line just yet but its a little higher than it was earlier at 2595. Jackie, thank you very much. Because we are in this position, the fiscal cliff imminent arrival, and weve been seeing it coming, a lot of people are scrambling to make plans assuming we go off the cliff. Hampton pearson is in washington with the ripple effect. Hampton. Thank you, tyler. This is a wealth version of lastminute christmas shopping. With two Business Days left to protect assets primarily from the tax consequences of going over the cliff. Tax planners say its been a banner year, especially for estate planning. Theres a big change coming with the gift tax. Right now theres a 5 million exemption and the tax rate is 55 . At midnight it drops to a million and the tax rate goes to 55 . The Capital Gains expected to rise from 15 to 20 . Theres a tax on raises over 200,000 a year. A future cap on charitable deductions and among those closely watching president obama and House Speaker john boehner for any kind of break through, millions of married couples facing a higher tax burden if we go over the cliff. The bush era tax law eliminated the marriage clause meaning that incomes of couples earning as little as 80,000 would be subject to taxation at the rate of the higher earning spouse. Now as far as their Wealth Preservation strategies, a nationwide survey done by Northern Trust found High Net Worth persons, more than 5 million in assets, are much more proactive in anticipating the tax consequences of going over the cliff than those with a Million Dollars or less in assets. That same survey had 44 of High Net Worth individuals saying their top priority for the country is Economic Growth and reducing unemployment versus 19 who are reducing the federal budget deficit. All right, hampton. Thank you very much. The finance. Yahoo. Com poll puts you in the shoes of a member of congress. How would you handle the fiscal cliff . Go vote finance. Yahoo. Com. The results are coming up. There you see your options. Michelle. Tyler, one of cnbcs best known traders making a very bold call. Get out of everything, everything, all cash. Get the take of other two other wall street trading pros in two minutes. See if they agree. Hi. Im steven yee. Im the operating partner of the exchange bar and grill. Im annoyed. Im annoyed with the fiscal cliff. Were looking at not knowing whats going to happen. We fall off this cliff and everyone gets affected. Theres no trickle down effect, its more like a slush. We will lose income. The question is how much income are we going to lose . If we fall off the cliff the fear is that we fall off the cliff, not slowly glide down the cliff. Government at this point needs to understand that we should be able to trust you to do the right things. Put politics aside. Think about us, the people. Thats why we have government. Fix it. This is 100,000. We asked total strangers to watch it for us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Ill be right back. They didnt take a dime. How much in fees does your bank take to watch your money . If your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. We call him dr. J. Hes got a name. He made waves on the fast time money report because hes become an investor in nothing. For the first time in 31 years in the market i am completely out of everything. I see no reason to stick with this thing. No reason to get short either, but i think weve assured our self, judge, that were going to get very small deals done and we virtually assured ourselves of getting our dent downgraded. Matt is with virtual financial. Anthony is with grg. Do you agree with dr. J. . I would agree. Were starting to get sick and tired of whats going on down in washington. Were getting complacent about the fiscal cliff. People are for getting about just about everything. Why not get out, take a look and reevaluate. Are you saying everybody go to cash . You know what, obviously theres going to be a small mix of stocks, bonds, cash. You know what, why dont you keep your cash. What you could do for next year, maybe if we do get a selloff maybe you could find some great entry points in the beginning of next year. Anthony grisante, what do you think . Anthony . Its very prudent to do that right now. I think you see the volumes on the exchanges. I know in crude oil its about half of what it usually is. Bonds, the same thing. A lot of people are staying on the sidelines. I think you have to be ready for when a deal is done and ready to jump back into the markets. Heres the thing. I mean, when he says hes in nothing, hes not saying hes going short but anybody whos got a long portfolio and has to sell, its the equivalent of going short, right . Telling people to sell at this point is a pretty strong thing. I mean, are you willing to say that . No, i definitely dont want to say that. I understand your thinking there, that it definitely is being short. There are ways to protect yourself against that. If we go over the cliff, gold should do better. Maybe you want to be a little more in that. There are ways to protect yourself against that right now. You know what i think when i see three guys all at the same time saying dont buy, sell . Buy. Yeah, i get nervous. I think i should be doing just the opposite. You should. Matt, anthony, thanks so much. Dr. J. , very provocative thought for a discussion today. Much appreciated. Tyler. All right, michelle. Thank you very much. Christmas 2013 is now 361 days away. Too early for a countdown. We get you. Fine. It is not too early for something else. Jane wells live until sunny southern california. Jane. Hi, tyler. One of the best things about being in the malls, theres no more christmas music. Up next, weve been talking about returns. How many returns to retailers are fraudulent, and are you still getting hurt because someone you gave a gift to didnt like it. Get over it. Everyone else has. Well have that after the break. They have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. A smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. Letfor an idea. S a grand