Please stop wasting time worrying about the fiscal cliff.

As I mentioned the other week, the weekly tax increase is a relatively minor, if you're a net-saver -- more on this later.

Since Republican House Leader John Boehner decided to pull out of talks last week and pull his little stunt (that failed miserably), any chance to pass a bill has practically disappeared.

But there are too many Tea Party Republicans in the House, to craft a meaningful compromise -- something Boehner made clear when his stunt failed last week.  So, following a new Congress, there will be more Democrats, which translates to needing fewer Republicans straying from their fidelity to Grover Norquist.  It may even push Tea Party Republicans to have to compromise, to regain at least some of their precious Bush tax cuts.

If they wanted to, they could pass a continuance bill, that is, a bill that would continue everything as it is, for another month, until the next Congress could settle in and find a compromise.

But it shouldn't matter that much to you, despite the growing media rhetoric.

As I mentioned, the weekly tax increase is minor.  But let's say it was critical for you.  Congress has the power to make any compromise bill in the new year, retroactively applied.  If your paycheck had higher taxes withheld, it would be returned back to you in the next paycheck.

Additionally, those large, automatic spending cuts aren't critically effective until later in the year, as all areas of government affected can simply move cash around, until it is restored.

And, any emergency unemployment funds, can simply be retroactively applied, so that people who have been out of work will still get their checks.

So despite all the BS you're hearing on the news, it's simply not true that we're going over some scary fiscal cliff.

THE REAL PROBLEM, IS THE DEBT CEILING!

Republicans have been using the debt ceiling the last several years to extract cuts from Democrats; there is not enough fear in Republicans, that the debt ceiling is a serious threat to the US economy.  Unless the debt ceiling is dealt with, we may see IMMEDIATE cuts to federal spending, which would truly plunge the US economy into recession, because it means that the US cannot borrow any more money, and no amount of shifting funds around will change this.

Fear the debt ceiling, not the fiscal cliff!