Fiscal Cliff Dwelling: Smile and the World Smiles with You

With as much as they gave up (and left unresolved) in the budget deal, what rings false — particularly from Biden — is all the preening.

(photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images caption: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden leaves a closed-door meeting with Senate Democrats to urge them to support a tentative tax agreement with Republicans on Capitol Hill on December 31, 2012, in Washington DC. The Senate stayed in session on New Year’s Eve to try to deal with the looming fiscal cliff issue.photo: Bill O’Leary / The Washington Post caption: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) arrives at the Capitol for the Democratic caucus. “We expect, the American people deserve an up or down vote on what was passed in the Senate,” she said.)