Fiscal cliff. This morning we will be taking your calls and comments. We will sort through what happens next. The phone lines are open. Send us an email, a facebook comment, or a tweet. Lets look at the headlines from the New York Times. A similar headline this morning from the Washington Post. Maynard dropped the effort to avert the fiscal cliff. The john boehner drops the effort to avert the fiscal cliff. This from the washington the wall street journal. The deadline looms with the fiscal cliff, that story available on line. Joining us live, meredith who has been following this since it started. What happened to the caucus last night . Caller there is the surface answer, what happened when they were leaving the room. I think the most telling detail and what you have seen and the most outlets is that apparently when the speaker calls one of these meetings, it is so he can gen of the final votes and try to get enough votes to pass an initiative. That was not even the purpose of this particular session. He was calling them in to tell them they were not going to have the votes and to go home for christmas. That is a telling detail that apparently the speaker got in front of the room and said the serenity prayer. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change and it then he sent them home for christmas. He just walked straight out of the capital. It was stunning, actually. It was not surprising that the republicans could not find the votes for this. We saw in the summer of 2011. The speaker tried to move his own bill, he could not find the votes. They stayed in session until past midnight and did not have the votes. This has been something that has happened throughout the congress. This is a huge blow to the speaker. It was a move highly challenged by democrats. The white house was upset he was going on his own and doing this. The strategic purpose was to prove that he could and to get his members to vote for a rise in any sort of tax rates. Also because it might have started the legislative process more in earnest. The negotiations so far have been focused on a Speaker John Boehner and the president. Had he been able to pass this, you might have some more of a congress led we have seen in every other as a decision before with Speaker John Boehner having to make a deal with leader harry reid and Mitch Mcconnell to try to find something that might get enough votes. Host but the follow up on two. In terms of negotiations, this poses a real question on the future of the speaker shift speakership of john boehner. Is that and jeopardy this morning . Caller i am always reluctant to make those kind of claims. I think the speaker still has allies of in the caucus. I think it is hard to tell and somebody who wants to hold that position. I have never been of the believe that eric cantor would be able to successfully challenge the speaker if the speaker wanted to hold his position. You have to imagine it is extraordinarily frustrating to have a caucus where they are not seeing the kind of responsibilities that theyre going to have to have and the compromises they will have to make after not being able to expand the majority in the house and not being able to win back the white house or the senate. Maybe Speaker John Boehner does not want to do it anymore. I do not know. It is too soon to say the speaker his speakership is in danger. I imagining this is not a high point for him. There will have to be some soul searching in the Republican Party, not just to the leader is but how they are going to govern and move forward. Maybe this is the low that was necessary to try to move forward and a constructive way. There does not seem to be a plan to do that right now. Host yesterday the speaker of the house issued the statement. Here are his words. The house did not take up the my final question to you is, what happens next . Who takes the lead in negotiations . Where will the president the . Who on the senate side will be in the renegotiation . Caller i think what happens immediately as people will go home for the holiday. I do not see how any sort of deal will get struck before christmas. As you know, there is a ceremony at 10 00 this morning at the national cathedral. The president and Vice President are scheduled to be there. Many members of congress are scheduled to be there. A sunday service in honolulu. Given how long it takes to get to hawaii, the earliest lawmakers would be able to return, harry reid is planning to go to hawaii, is first thing monday morning. That is christmas eve. There is really not a lot of time to bargain. It looks possible, but the politicians could be leading the government has the fiscal cliff. The question is, how the negotiation works, which is key. I think it will end up being something between Speaker John Boehner, Mitch Mcconnell, and harry reid. They will have to find something they can pass through the senate and send it to john boehner and john boehner will be able to sell that saying, these guys past it. We have to do this. Until there is a deal, this is going to be a blame game of who is at fault for not finding an agreement. The House Republicans cannot be stuck with it, which is what i think the statement was indicative of a. Host thank you very much for being with us here on washington journal. Lets take a look at some of your comments. First on the Facebook Page. Lets get to your calls and comments with the fiscal cliff and sequestration. The deadline looming one week and a half away. What happens next . We will go to larry from mississippi. Caller good morning. The republicans are for big business and the rich. The president and the democrats are for the middle class. Oil and water do not mix. We know where the republicans stand. When all of the when oil and water does not mix, you have to scrape the oil off of the top. Host next is patrick from florida on the independent line. Caller good morning. First off, i would like to say that i do not know why cspan does not start with the facts and and get peoples opinion. Social security for instance, i think it was you that was showing a film about roosevelt. You have people come on and say, 15 people were paying an and pete 15 people were not getting payouts. That was true. Everybody that paid was not eligible for the benefits. Eisenhower added the disability benefit. Nixon added the cost of living adjustments. Ronald reagan had one of the biggest increases of Social Security taxes. You act like Social Security never changed from the 1930s. What i would like to say about the fiscal cliff is that you bring out all of these republicans, t baggers, whatever from southern red states, they have the worst health as far as obesity, high Blood Pressure which adds to medicare and medicaid spending. They have some of the Worst School Districts with no schools antidote jobs. Notes skills and no jobs. You just seemed to be like a propaganda outlet outlet. Host appreciate your comment. I could not disagree with the board. We appreciate that. The market is pointing downward today. Cnbc with an eye on what happened last night. Friday could be a tense day as a resolution on the fiscal cliff appears less likely in the final trading days of the year. Stock futures falling sharply. Belle features seeing triple digit losses thursday evening. Dow futures with a triple digit losses. The cliff is more than 500 billion in taxes and spending cuts that will start hitting the economy january 1 if congress does not act. They are expecting a compromise between House Republicans and the white house it will head off the worst effects and lead to bigger tax cuts and tax increases and the budget discussions in the new year. Maggie is joining us from the republican line. Caller it is now up to harry reid and the president to decide what theyre going to do. The republicans sent bills to harry reid months ago. He has ignored them. There are playing this stupid game, i go so it not sure why, i guess they thought they were going to get their own way. They were going to put everything off until after the election. The country does not stop just because there is going to be an election. I think they all need to get together, sit down, get this worked out, otherwise a lot of people are going to be very hurt when the taxes go up. That is all i have to say. Host a couple of headlines from the Atlanta Journal constitution. We are getting calls and comments. What happens next . Congress is an recess. The senate will be attending many Funeral Services for the senator who passed away earlier this week. We will have live coverage on c span 2. The nra with a scheduled conference. We will have live coverage of that also here on this network. Robert is on the phone from oklahoma on the democrats line. Caller good morning. Thank you and t why by angels for cspan. My comment is simply about something simple, we can do better than this. The better is, we live in one place. We live in one place called the United States of america. We can agree to have balance. My final comment is, we can all be winners. What is so hard with that . I am from the east. I have lived here since 17. What is wrong with this place in terms of why we cannot do better . Host how would he respond to your own question . Caller we know about the very poor, the very rich. I love the fact i can make a lot of money, but the other side is i work as a social services person with food banks, being part of housing and homeless. We can do much better. We have to understand each other. That is my comment. Host to life for the call. From our twitter page. Thank you for the call. Front page of the washington times. From thehill. Com. House republicans announced the house will be back after the christmas holiday. The house concluded business, that was a statement from kevin mccarthy. The announcement coming moments after Speaker John Boehner said it is up to the president and Senate Democrats to work on legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff. Next is peter from highland park, new jersey on the independent line. Caller good morning. I have two points. One your desk brought up about this eric cantor fellow who wants to stick a knife and John Boehners back. I firmly believe that these Tea Party People are really anarchists and they want to bring the country to its knees. They should not get away with it. They are really the american al qaeda. They will try to bring this country to its knees of less john boehner and some of those Tea Party People wake up. Another thing about eric cantor. Most of these guns we get up here in the new york area according to beer bloomberg, they all come from virginia. According to mayor bloomberg it, they all come from virginia. I suggest if people are really serious about these guns, they take their First Amendment rights and they take their Second Amendment rights by going down to virginia and buying some of those bushmaster automatic weapons and lock and load and march around his house and see how he likes it. This guy, he is a millionaire, and he wants to be the speaker of the house. The Tea Party People they are crazy. They are ready to take the kool aid and take us with them. Bring the whole country to its knees, over what . The difference between 100,000. 200000 dollars for millionaires . How sick are the regular republicans who will go along with this . Host joe is calling us from North Carolina on the republican line. Caller i think it is like the best piece of literature ever written was open we the people. It is time we start acting as one. If we move separately, we do the move at all. Host how do you resolve this issue . How do you get a compromise if there is one on the fiscal cliff . Caller we know the trouble we are in. We have to go forward. You have to put your political ideology behind yourself. And just like if you have a child that has a cygnus, you are going to do what you have to do to take care of it. If you have a child that has a sickness, you are right to have to do what you have to do to take care of it. As far as this woman with the assault weapons, m14 30. 6 do you consider those assault weapons or do you just consider them the 30 round clips you can have a speed changer on your revolver. You can change it as quick as a nine round clip. This is ridiculous. We are people that just love to argue about nonsense. It is about time we move forward, one baby step in front of the other. For the call. U apiece many people are reading on this friday morning. Syndicated across the country, the roots of mass murder. Every mass shooting has three elements, we will hear much more on this as the nra holds a News Conference that will get under way at about 10 45 eastern time. Live coverage on this network and also strained on the internet at cspan. Org. Will the speaker survived plan c . Has there been a House Speaker in modern history with less control over his members and john boehner . Passing a backup plan that would extend the bush tax cuts for all and come under 1 million. John boehner lost the vote in a dramatic turn of events on the house floor. The failure of plan b proves something important. John boehner does not have enough support to pass any bill that passes taxes, even one meant to block a larger tax increase. The house is now adjourned until after christmas. It is clear what plan c will be. John boehner will have to accept the reality that he needs to begin passing legislation with democratic votes. Charlotte North Carolina on the democrats line. Caller we are going to have to figure it out. They have to put revenue on the table. There is no question about it. There should not be a plan. It should have been a plan a. I agree with a guy in florida about the Southern States on Social Security. I do not know what the republicans are thinking. They should not have even had a plan b or c. It should have been planned a. President obama went in, he is speaking, they need to listen and follow. He is a leader. Plan b or c should not be happening. Host harry reids spokesperson issued the Statement Last night. Next is joe from iowa. Caller good morning. Steve, hello. Yes, i was just wondering, i think what it all boils down to was talking about this for a second. The republicans are the Koch Brothers henchmen. There are looking out for themselves. That is what they cannot raise the money on the riches. The coke brothers Koch Brothers is the issue. Caller my first comment would be, how far do the left do you have to be to think that cspan is right wing . I own several assault weapons. The m13 is a 10. 08 and ted kennedys car has killed more people that my gun. For any of these people who voted for obama read drams of my father . When you break it, you can fix it. These democrats think all you have to do is tax the rich, the rich have to make payroll, pay insurance the money has to come from somewhere. There will be laying people off. These people that call in and think the republicans are so stupid how about george soros who gives millions upon millions to the left . Host ok. Thank you for the call. From the wall street journal. That is what we are asking this morning. What happens next . Tunney is joining us from henderson, North Carolina. Tony is joining us from henderson, North Carolina. Caller they think the president is going to start negotiating against himself . He did that 40 dead years. He is not going to do it again. This speaker, theyre not going to do anything different. Eric cantor is not going to lead this party. The leadership in the Republican Party is in the media, it is not in the washington anymore. This president is not going to be negotiating against himself to get the president the speaker of trouble. Host from the National Journal he jetted out of the room where they were holed up and walked by journalists and delivered the news that the House Speakers plan had suffered a mortal wound. Would there be a vote tonight . No. Plan b the speaker said it would pass it failed to win enough support in the conference. The details followed quickly after House Republicans walked by and confirmed the speakers efforts to persuade members failed. Next is chris from ohio on the independent line. Caller good morning. I would like to make my first point is that john boehner and president obama i need to back down. This hyperpolarized, hyper partisanship, it is not working. Back in the day we had a four party system. We had conservatives and liberals on both sides of the aisle. They need to work together. I think the first up would be to get all of these the first step is to get all of the special interests out of there. There are 20 special interest people per member of congress. There are over 20 lobbyists per person in congress. How can they do anything when all theyre trying to do is raise money for political campaigns . Host thank you for the call. Two headlines we want to share. Funeral Services Getting under way this morning. 10 30 eastern time. The president and Vice President will be in attendance. The final burial will take place sunday in hawaii. Next is surely on the republican line. Shirley. Caller thank you for taking my call. I give john boehner a lot of credit. He is trying so hard to make the president understand that we cannot sp