DIFFERENT OBJECTIVES IN FISCAL CLIFF NEGOTIATIONS

I am confused. What is the objective of the fiscal cliff negotiations? Are there two different objectives or one? Apparently, I was looking at the Washington stalemate wrongly. I thoughT we were trying to solve the debt crisis. I was wrong. The Democrats are trying to solve the debt problem—pay the bills for an unfinanced war and HUGE tax cuts for the rich—but the Republican are trying to destroy the government to save it. Grover Norquist is the only one who has told us how they want to do it, which is make it so small they can “drown it in the bathtub”. Doesn’t that ring of the old conservative Vietnam War strategy of destroying villages to save them? I think of Mai Li when I hear that phrase. By the way, Mai Li means beautiful village in Chinese.  As an aside, be warned about what they mean when they say they want to save Medicare and Social Security.