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(Reuters) - With only a week left before a deadline for the United States to go over a "fiscal cliff," lawmakers played a waiting game on Monday in the hope that someone will produce a plan to avoid harsh budget cuts and higher taxes for most Americans from New Year's Day.

Though Republicans and Democrats have spent the better part of a year describing a plunge off the cliff as a looming catastrophe, the nation's capital showed no outward signs of worry, let alone impending calamity.

The White House has set up shop in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is vacationing.

The Capitol was deserted and the Treasury Department - which would have to do a lot of last-minute number-crunching with or without a deal - was closed.

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My Comment: If there is a time for Presidential leadership and the ability to make different parties agree to a deal .... this is it. But Ed Rogers (Washington Post) is probably right .... it is not going to happen with this President.

What do I expect .... a short term solution that will buy some time .... followed by the same policies and actions that got us into this mess in the first place. But in the event that the U.S. does go off the cliff .... expect short term financial chaos, massive cuts in the Pentagon, higher taxes, and a President who will then rush in and propose a plan that everyone will quickly agree to .... but .... it will again be the same policies and actions that got us into this mess in the first place.