The negotiations under way in Washington over the "fiscal cliff"
have, so far, involved a lot of empty talk about compromise,
plenty of competing economic claims, and tons of special-
interest lobbying.  Time is winding down on Congress and the
White House to reach an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff --
the set of tax increases and federal funding cuts that would
occur should the two sides fail to reach an accord.  Without an
agreement, more than $500 billion in automatic tax increases for
all Americans and cuts in domestic and military programs will
take effect.  There are those who argue that the government
should go over the cliff as a form of shock treatment. That way,
they argue, lawmakers would be forced to make tough decisions
about what stays and what goes in the federal budget.  There is
a certain appeal to that, but there is a huge downside to cliff
diving.  Every state would feel the impact.  The fiscal cliff is
not solely about tax increases, it's also about federal funding
cuts. And those recei