"Sometime in the next 10 days, a fiscal cliff agreement is likely," reads the latest CNN report. What the report doesn't say is if the agreement will be reached before we hit the statutory debt limit (on December 31) or the deadline when automatic increases on everyone go into effect (January 1). It might be a mini-deal, but still: the reason CNN and politicos are confident is because members of the Senate and the House are expected to go back to work Thursday, Reuters is reporting. And, what's more reassuring (we guess?) is that lawmakers seem to know that the ongoing fight is about optics (see: John Boenher's statement blaming the Senate today), and that their theatrics are wearing thin on the American public (which matters more to them than any letter from Timothy Geithner). Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen told CNN:

It's all about scoring political points ... I know the American people are tired of all of us.

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Alexander Abad-Santos