Democrats say if Bush-era tax cuts aren't allowed to expire for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, then no budget deal. The line in the sand for Republicans is for the Obama Administration to put spending cuts on the table, or no deal.  

The usually optimistic freshman Republican Congressman Sean Duffy of Weston doesn't like what he hears, "If you would have asked me two weeks ago, I would have told you I was very optimistic we're going to get a deal. We're going to get it done. Everybody wants to be reasonable and find solutions that work. But today, listening to the positions, not just officially coming from everybody involved to what people are saying, we're going to be hard pressed to find an agreement."

That said, Duffy believes if both sides are willing to make hard choices, then perhaps both sides will agree to things they may not like and a deal will be struck. He says if that happens, he sees a bright future for the nation's economy.