As the country barrels towards 2013 with no "fiscal cliff" deal in sight, headlines are crossing Friday that the politicos are about to revert to what they always do when faced with tough choices on taxes and spending cuts and the dreadful long-term debt trajectory: They punt. Keep the charade of government largess and low taxes going just a little bit longer.

Not only will this not solve the problem (as I've said before, the issue is out-of-control healthcare costs) it makes the situation worse by increasing the pressure on Washington when the debt ceiling fight starts in January. The Treasury has said it will hit its borrowing limit on Dec. 31 -- but the hard deadline, thanks to emergency cash management, will be in February or March.

Here's why this deal should be viewed with skepticism.

Details. The latest suggests Obama is proposing a 60-90 day deal that would extend the Bush tax cuts for those making less than $400,000 a year, delay or replace automatic spending cuts (from the congressional deficit "super committee" failure), keep extended unemployment benefits, and fix issues related to the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Medicare "doc fix."

This is exactly the kind of hollow, kick-the-can option the credit rating agencies have been warning Washington to resist. Moody's recently said that a last minute kick-the-can deal would be the worst possible outcome since it would fail to stabilize the country's debt to GDP ratio. Fitch warned that it would consider a downgrade if the political gridlock continued and the fiscal cliff debate dragged well into 2013.

Remember that Standard & Poor's cut our AAA rating last summer, in large part, because of our dysfunctional politics. 

Markets are already expressing their displeasure with this option, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average slices down through its 50-day and 200-day moving averages for the first time since the November wipeout. Volatility is surging. And investors are scrambling into safe haven assets like the U.S. Dollar and Treasury bonds.

In response, I've added four new defensive, leveraged ETFs to my Edge Letter Sample Portfolio including the ProShares UltraShort Nasdaq QQQ (QID) and the Direxion 3x Treasury Bull (TMF).

Disclosure: Anthony has recommended QID and TMF to his clients.

I found these positions with the help of technical screens developed with Fidelity's Wealth Lab Pro back-testing tools, which you can find here. (Fidelity sponsors the Investor Pro section on MSN Money.)

Be sure to check out his new investment newsletter, the Edge, and his money management service, Mirhaydari Capital Management. A two-week free trial has been extended to MSN Money readers. Click the link above to sign up. Mirhaydari can be contacted at anthony@edgeletter.c​​om and followed on Twitter at @EdgeLetter. You can view his current stock picks here. Feel free to comment below.