I've seen something similar before but this is more in reference to the debt ceiling than it is the actual fiscal cliff. Fiscal cliff is about automatic tax increases and spending cuts that neither party likes. The deal that they're trying to reach is still about tax increases and spending cuts...just to a lesser extent and in different areas than what the fiscal cliff puts us in. Khanacadamy does a very good non-partisian explanation of it. It's a pretty long and a dumbed down version but it does go through it step by step.