In the House, John Boehner was narrowly elected to his second term as Speaker – surviving a revolt by a handful of Tea Party Republicans. But the action is in the Senate, where the battle for filibuster reform is heating up.

The United States is set to jump into an austerity economic death spiral this year. Already – thanks to Republican hostage scenarios forcing deep spending cuts, the United States is set to swallow $348 billion in austerity measures in 2013. That includes $200 billion in spending cuts and an additional $125 billion from the expiration of the payroll tax cut.

The House of Representatives needed overtime – but late Tuesday night, they agreed with the Senate and passed legislation to avert half of the so-called “fiscal cliff.” And despite President Obama and some Democrats declaring victory after Republicans were forced to sign on to a small tax increase for the wealthiest Americans, this fiscal cliff deal is actually a dream come true for billionaires and banksters.

The first casualties of going over the so-called “fiscal cliff” will be more than two million unemployed Americans who depend on extended emergency unemployment benefits.

Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner announced on Wednesday that in addition to the fiscal cliff deadline at the end of the year, the United States will also hit its borrowing limit on December 31st, meaning the debt-limit will have to be raised a lot sooner than previously believed.

As Speaker of the House John Boehner failed to get his members in line to vote on a plan to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff.” It was a bad idea to begin with – a plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire for millionaires – but let those same millionaires keep generous tax loopholes, while getting rid of many of the tax breaks used by the middle class.

All eyes are on Speaker of the House John Boehner to see if he has control of his Republican Party. Today, Boehner will try to bring his "Plan B" to the floor for a vote – a proposal that will extend the Bush tax cuts for all Americans who earn less than a million dollars a year, while allowing the tax cuts for millionaires to expire at the end of the year.

But he’s also making a run at capitulator of the year. Fallout continues one day after the White House proposed turning the austerity knives on Social Security Insurance in their latest “fiscal cliff” proposal.

Following the Sandy Hook massacre of twenty first graders with an assault rifle, but the gun lobby is now threatening violent revolution. Appearing on MSNBC on Monday, the executive director of Gun Owners of America, Larry Pratt, argued that the right to bear arms is necessary to make our democratic government cower in fear of gun owners.

In a memorial speech on Sunday for the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, President Obama called the nation out. He asked the question of whether or not we as a nation are doing enough to keep our children safe.

We all now know about Right-to-Work-for-less laws in Michigan, thanks to Republican Governor Rick Snyder and the corporate oligarchs. But, believe it or not, Right-to-Work-for-less may not even be the most radical, anti-democratic law that passed in Michigan this week.

You’ll end up dead in a drone strike or indefinitely detained in Gitmo. But, if you’re a big Wall Street bank and you finance terrorist activities, then guess what? You get a slap on the wrist fine and then…well…that’s it.

Into law in Michigan, the focus shifts to how working people can overturn the legislation. Unfortunately, Republicans purposefully designed the law to make this task more difficult. By attaching Right-to-Work-for-less to a budget appropriations bill, Republicans made it harder for Michigan voters to repeal the law down the road. According to the Michigan Constitution, voter referendums do not apply to budget appropriations bill.

As Republicans lawmakers and Republican Governor Rick Snyder give their final approval to the state’s new right to work for less law. Michigan will join 23 other states in the nation that have gone right to work for less – but it is by far the most unionized state to suffer this fate, which should be very troubling to the organized labor community.

They’re going to use the debt ceiling to hold senior citizens on Medicare hostage. In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, prominent Senate Republican Bob Corker said Republicans plan to use the upcoming debt ceiling debate as leverage to force cuts to insurance programs like Medicare.