i think we are largely on the mend now in terms of the nancial part of the crisis.hink there are a lot of coral springs in animal spirits waiting to bubble up. all lot of the effect of this fiscal cliff, to some degree, has already started to happen and has been happening, at least in the impact on businesses and their willingness to invest and spend. whether we have any near-term outloo, that vow of cleing is a different story, but i do believe that there is a coiled spring. lou: all right. a coiled spring and on the mend. >> i hope. lou: thank you so much. >> thanks, lou. thanks for having me. lou: up next second place finish raising a lot of questions about the republican party, its viability. we are talking about remorse, recrinations, re-examination. the republicans failed to meet our modern-day challenges? we are joined, and the president's campaign strategy working exactly as they planned. america turned out, handed him a second term, and some of the biggest implications, ramifications, and consequences of four more years. we take that up in the chalk talk an

if not for the country is facing a nancial disaster or anything. oh wait, we really are. joining me n, doug holtz-eakin. former cbo director under president george w. bush. always a pleasure to have you on the show. today the federal reserve chairman ben bernanke warned congress, said look, i can't help you out if you go over the fiscal cliff, there is nothing the federal reserve can really do at this point. do you think congress realizes, understands the stakes here? >> i hope they do, this is a clear and present danger to the u.s. economy and it is not just what happens if we go over the fiscal cliff, it is actually affecting the economy right now. a big drag of business confidence, businesses are already t doing very well, negative investment, really cannot afford to make the situation any worse and we have heard some members of congress talk about going over the fiscal clififf to teach the other parta lesson. that is not helpful. this is something that should be settled qukly. we know that we're probably going to have higher taxes out of the health care reform. now th