host: david lightman, thank you for checking in. we will check in with things stand with the fiscal cliff. you can join us honor twitter account at twitter.com/cspanwj. it is down to the wire. robert on the democrats line. caller: i blame the republicans . i do not think they are being honest. they think the american people are stupid. the american people are not stupid. the american people are not going to forget this. they know who is holding up the process. they may blame the president as well as congress. the american people have spoken. they want the crisis solved. if you want to cut out all social programs, they are getting the benefit of the situation. this is what they wanted. . the american people do not want that. host: are you listening on c- span radio? caller: yes. host: good morning, jim. caller: i'm calling from georgetown, texas. senator schumer proposed a $1 million cut off. reid and durbin did not go along with that. no entitlement cuts and we have $16 chilean debt and everybody -- $16 trillion debt and everybody k

host: let's begin with david lightman. white house. the best sense of what you think the dynamics will be inside the room at the 3:00 p.m. meeting. guest: it wouldn't shock me if we're talking 72 hours from now. the deadline is 11:59 on the 31st. we have seen this on and on. there are five people that know what is going and they are talking. host: let's walk through the scenarios that we can expect. the meeting is at the white house. democrats and republicans. this is the first time they have met since the election. guest: november 16 was the only time they met. it is good news they are talking. are they going to keep talking? will they say, "we will see everybody tomorrow." they would keep talking. what is going to happen on the floors of the house and senate. the senate needs to extend the tax rates a year and amended and that can be done in a matter of hours. when they agree to that -- would they agree to that? we also have to watch the tone. i go back to last friday. there was a press conference and 95% was angry and criticizing de