down to the fiscal cliff wire

Minnesotaくんも取り上げていたdown to the wireですが，それにcliffを付けたバリエーションがあありました。「はらはら，どきどき」という感じでしょう。（UG）

Down to the fiscal cliff wire, with no solution in sight

(CNN) -- Call it a bigger, bolder version of the deadline-driven congressional stalemates over taxes and spending that have come to define Washington dysfunction of the past two years.

The latest edition of political "blinksmanship" pits President Barack Obama and Democrats against Speaker John Boehner and Republicans on how to avoid the fiscal cliff -- automatic tax increases for everyone and deep spending cuts including the military that will be triggered in the new year without an agreement.

While the focus now is on a possible agreement in coming days or weeks, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist told CNN on Monday that the nation should gird for long-range battle.

"This is a long fight. It's four years of a fight. It's not one week of a fight," said Norquist, who has threatened to mount primary challenges against Republicans who violate a pledge they signed at his behest against ever voting for a tax increase.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/24/politics/fiscal-cliff/index.html?hpt=us_c2