President Obama and Washington Lawmakers continue to work on a compromise to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" where major estate and income tax breaks end and draconian spending cuts kick in automatically at the end of the year if nothing is done.

3rd District Republican Congressman Jon Runyan says all the panic about the fiscall cliff comes from the uncertainty of what will happen if austerity measures are enacted too quickly. "Is the economy going to slow down? Are the markets going to react negatively? There's so much unknown on the other side of that and that's what I think is driving a lot of the anxiety."

Runyan says Republicans are seeing all the revenue and are calling for more spending cuts, especially in entitlement programs like Medicare. Meanwhile, the Democrats are calling for and end of the Bush Era tax cuts for people earning over $250,000 annually. Runyan says both side agree that allowing the major austerity measures to kick in too quickly at the end of the year wouldn't be the right thing to do. "It's finding a responsible way to move forward that both sides can agree on. You know, that's what this whole negotiation and this whole back and forth is about."

According to an article in the Washington Post, experts call the "fiscal cliff" the single largest act of debt reduction in American history, cutting $1.2 trillion dollars in two years and possibly triggering another recession.

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