current economic situation well enough to make the right decisions by next guest is doubtful robert kuttner joins me now he's the coeditor of the american prospect senior fellow at demos and author of the book a presidency in peril the inside story of obama's promise wall street's power and the struggle to control our economic future robert welcome thank you so much for having a first of all did i overstate or understate anything in that set up. i would tweak it in one respect the fiscal cliff did not just happen most of the fiscal cliff is the result of the republicans playing chicken with the debt ceiling and because the republicans. would not agree to any kind of a budget deal that included any tax cuts the fallback was this automatic trigger that would produce automatic budget cuts that has created what ben bernanke either head of the federal reserve calls the fiscal cliff so this perils of pauline drama has been created mainly by the republican refusal to do anything other than stonewall so i think that's part of the senate so a but genuinely if this this is the outcome of the process