Why is it called a ‘fiscal cliff’?

Where did the term “fiscal cliff” come from? According to the folks who write for the Yahoo! front page, it’s a term that doesn’t imply an actual cliff, so its unusual usage deserves quotation marks:

I guess that means when it shows up on yahoo.com without quotation marks, it’s to be taken literally:

So, does it need quotation marks or not? I don’t know. But it does need some consistent treatment from “journalists” who work for the same company. Can’t they try to be consistent and pick one and go with it? Apparently not.

And why is it called the “fiscal cliff”? It’s because of this guy:

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