Fiscal Cliff 2012 Stalemate: Obama and Republicans Continue to Stand Their Ground, Will There Be a Deal Before Jan. 1?

Progress on the impending fiscal cliff is grinding to a halt with little room for compromise as both sides dig in their heels.

Of course, which side is taking a righteous stand for values and the American people, and which side is being stubborn and intractable depends on one's politics.

Republicans have thus far refused to agree to tax hikes on Americans making more than $250,000 a year, and increase in the capital gains tax and inheritance tax, or a list of specific tax deductions to cut.

Instead, they have responded to President Obama's initial offer of $1.6 billion in new taxes on the top 2 percent of wage earners with a plan that raises $800 billion exclusively through unspecified spending cuts to Social Security, healthcare and entitlement programs and the elimination of a vague series of tax deductions, likely ones that are very popular with most middle-class Americans.

So far, Republicans have refused to budge on raising the marginal tax rate 4.6 percent, back to where it was during the boom years of the Clinton presidency.

After winning a resounding victory in last month's election, Obama is disinclined to give in to Republican demands. Indeed, most polls show Americans agree with his positions. Cutting Social Security or Medicare, or ending the mortgage tax deduction or the child tax credit are very unpopular with the public.

Many progressive groups and unions are demanding the president continue to stand his ground, even if it means going over the cliff, a scenario that seems ever more likely each day.

Of course, the Republicans in Congress will come to some kind of agreement with the president eventually. With the cliff comes tax hikes and spending cuts that nobody wants, but they hurt Republican constituencies more. And if Obama proposed a new tax cuts, mimicking the effects of the Bush-era tax cuts, but only affecting incomes below $250,000, there would be little the Republicans could do to stop it, other than meekly crying "class warfare."

But a vote against a huge tax cut for 98 percent of Americans would be political suicide. Even the Tea Party and libertarians would need to back a proposal like that, and the conservative coalition crumbles.