As the first paychecks of 2013 were deposited into accounts earlier this month, some workers undoubtedly wondered why their take-home pay seemed lighter than in December. The reason was simple: the fiscal cliff deal is now beginning to rear its ugly head in the form of a payroll tax increase. Oddly, no one seemed more surprised than Obama supporters themselves.  “What happened?” rang out among liberal blogs and message boards.

Democracy and Power 104: Future Debt BurdenA government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property – an unpaid tax bill. —Hans F. Sennholz

Update on the Debt Ceiling fight: House Republicans appear to be listening to the grassroots. Today GOP leaders announced they will not pass any bill to extend the national debt ceiling until the Senate does its job and passes a budget.

Here we go again… The U.S. is expected to hit the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling by the end of February. That means that we can expect more partisan bickering in Washington over whether to raise the debt ceiling—with or without spending cuts. It has now become typical for Washington to stumble from one manufactured crisis to the next instead of fixing the root cause of the problem.

The repeated refrain from the likes of Paul Krugman and Jay Carney is that we MUST increase the debt limit so that we don't default on the full faith and credit of the United States, and that we continue to pay our bills. Indeed, on Monday, President Obama chastised Congressional Republicans for making spending cuts mandatory in any debt ceiling negotiation:

As with most events in life, timing was everything.  Fitch Ratings, Ltd. released a statement Tuesday announcing its intention to lower the U.S. credit rating unless the Administration and Congress can incorporate responsible fiscal policy (i.e., a balanced budget) into the upcoming debt ceiling debate. The press release took on special meaning in light of the presidential press conference less than 24 hours before, during which Obama pledged to ignore any deals from Congress matching the debt-ceiling increase with equal spending cuts.

Forget all the post-election hand wringing over shifting demographics and outreach, the real problem for Republicans remains their complete inability to craft a narrative of their own or, more importantly, to counter false narratives created by the Democrats.In the Age of Obama, this has become akin to a formulaic Hollywood horror franchise with only minor tweaks to each script. Think "Friday the 13th", only much, much scarier when the real consequences are fully realized.