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Subscribe to RSSAs others have pointed out, the so-called fiscal cliff maybe isn't the best metaphor to use in describing the current debate over the looming tax increases and spending cuts set to take place in the new year.
After all, when you jump off a cliff, you usually don't live to tell about it.
But that isn't necessarily the case in this debate. If tax rates go up and spending cuts go into effect after Dec. 31, Congress always has the ability to fix things retroactively at a later date.
Perhaps a better metaphor to use is the deadline for midterm paper -- you might fail your class or flunk out of school if you don't complete the paper on time, or you could successfully negotiate to turn it in a later date, or you could do other things to boost your grades and standing in school.
Another metaphor is the deadline for a collective-bargaining agreement in professional sports -- having the contract expire could mean the end to the football or hockey season, or the principals could eventually reach a deal (even if that means a shortened season).
So what happens -- and what doesn't -- if Congress, as it increasingly appears, fails to reach a fiscal deal before the new year?
On Christmas, the New York Times ran a good summary:
Some hits — like a two percentage point increase in payroll taxes and the end of unemployment benefits for more than two million jobless Americans — would be felt right away. But other effects, like tens of billions in automatic spending cuts, to include both military and other programs, would be spread out between now and the end of the 2013 fiscal year in September. These could quickly be reversed if a compromise is found.
Similarly, the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts on Jan. 1 would not have a major impact on consumers if Congress quickly agreed to extend them for all but the wealthiest Americans in early 2013, as is widely expected.
Other probable changes, like a jump in taxes on capital gains and dividends, would most likely be felt over a broader period rather than as an immediate blow to the economy.
So the world doesn't come to an end on Jan. 2 or Jan. 3. But the question will turn to: What does Congress and the Obama White House do to fix things and limit the damage?
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Presaidents birth certificate. Did you kinow he went to college on a foreign aid program? Did you know he went out of the country on a foreign passport in his youth? Did anyone check to see when his mother cdame back into the country did she have a child with her on her passport? Did you know Arpio had his birth certificate checked and it proved to be falts with numbering and computer generate additives hidden? enough now.
Seems the far right has discovered what they think is the intent of the design and rules of congress, make fools of everyone there and stop or destroy the governing at federal level. Is there still that bizarre rule option where only one senator can stop anything if they throw big enough tantrum, the one-person fillibuster who may only represent 0.3 percent of the population if they are from some states? Heard one might do that for debt ceiling vote, one also was holding up extended unemployment benefits vote a couple years ago....Our system is set up more for never changing anything than making change when needed, guess that is why there is the 14th amendment - we saw it was needed when a minority can stop whatever they want no matter how much they could hurt the country just to impress their voters.
gene go take your meds
Since the Mayan Calendar end of world date prediction was off, are the republicans switching to their own calendar to make 12/31/12 that date?
The "Fiscal Cliff" is,,,,,,,,,An analogy, Not a metaphor, LOL
Actually a better analogy would be considering us at the BOTTOM of the cliff now looking
up at a $1 trillion deficit, If we make it to the top we will of reached a balanced budget.
Dropping the Bush taxcuts alone will propel us halfway up that cliff
This is what happens when you have a total lack of leadership in the White House.
What happens if we go over the cliff?????
Congress goes back to vacation...whats the big deal?????
????
I find it interesting all the articles talking about how if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire it will hit the "middle and lower class" the hardest. I thought democrats have been screaming for years that those cuts were only for the wealthy and should be stopped. Now that they may be, everyone is screaming about how it is the middle and lower classes who will be hit the hardest. The fact is, those tax cuts went overwhelmingly to the middle and lower classes. Democrats have been yelling that our problems are not spending problems but revenue problems, we need a lot more revenue. I think all this teeth gnashing proves that what they really mean is that we need more revenue from other peoples accounts.
Liberals in the WH and Congress,are just afraid that they will eventually run out of other peoples money to steal, I mean spend. Mre revenue for the government is liking giving more booze to an alcoholic, there will never be enough to make them happy.
You liberal sheep need to stop using the word "we". Did I say you can write like that in front of me? Don't ever try to include me in your reindeer, community, all-for-one mentality or I'll put you back in the barn. Bah Bah
Bring on the cliff, put some sanity back into irresponsible spending. Restore the tax rates pre-bush tax-cut, let everyone have "skin" in the game.
Not everyone does have "skin in the game;" the taxpayers in the middle class will suffer but many pay no federal income tax and what does it matter to them? If Obama lets this happen, he will further destroy our economy.
People don't realize that the ball is rolling quickly down hill. Prices on everything are going up, and so are taxes. so it does not matter if you pay more payroll taxes or higher prices at the retailer, everyone will feel the pinch of Barry's share the wealth agenda. He wants to send our affluence over seas and he is doing a good job of it. Now he has 4 more years to work on it.
Sending our affluence over seas happened a long time before Barrack Obama came on the scene. It started with the free trade agreements and has mushroomed under several Republican administrations. I am always amazed at how so many want to execute the waiter when he comes to present the bill for our irresponsible spending. The same attitudes confronted Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he had this unenviable task after the crash of 1929. However he had the benefit of being able to use the equivalent of martial law to push through his agendas because of the threat of the impending World War.
Had that not been the case he would have faced pretty much the same kind of opposition and criticism that President Obama is facing now. Somehow though I don't think that FDR would have faced quite the level of childish obstructionism that we have today. Back then the Republicans and Democrats both still had the welfare of the nation at heart but just had different ideas about how to go about it. Now it is only about party preservation and re-elections and to heck with what happens to the nation and its economy. At least that is how it seems to me. The fact that we are sitting on the precipice of this so called "cliff" tells me that many politicians are more interested in being right than choosing right.
Deflation! It will be all about supply & demand.People lose ther jobs or pay more taxes & fees .It doesn,t matter. It is still money out of the working middle classes pocket.Less money in the pocket = less spending!
I'm with Obama on this one. It doesn't affeect me, so I just don't care.
I'm with Obama on this. Since it doesn't affect me, I just don't care.
What other "leverage" does Congress have against this "lame-duck socialist", who is hell bent on destruction of this Nations economy?
Does anyone truly believe that Obama and the Democrats are wringing their collective hands, afraid of a "cliff", that automatically INCREASES TAXES ON EVERYONE?
Obama is salivating over the prospect of automatic increases.
What this clown show is about is Boner being owned by the Tea Party crazies. He's their captive, their hostage. No wonder he's crying all the time. A bunch of no nothing morons have taken control of the House and the Republican party.
The lunatics are firmly in control of the asylum.
This is the Republican party going down in flames. They're in a dive and the ground is coming up fast.
Meanwhile, even without the Tea Party takeover, the Republican party would still be headed for oblivion because the demographics are changing against them so fast. Most new voters are Democrats. The huge and ever more energetic and emerging giant Latino vote is solidly Democrat, Gays, Women, Blacks and other minorities, basically ALL OF THE GROUPS THAT THE GOP HAS BEEN AT WAR AGAINST are now solidly Democrat.
The GOP is now a group that consists primarily of OLD and getting OLDER EVERY SINGLE MINUTE angry white men ("GET OFF MY LAWN!") who are dying off very nicely.
This is why the only way GOP'ers can cling to power is by cheating. The only reason they control the House is due to Gerrymandering which should have been outlawed long ago. They stole the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections with electronic voting machines. They do everything they can to keep the people away from the ballot box. It goes on and on and on.
I present to you the soon to be extinct GOP, the party of criminals and liars.
Just a few more GOP'er funerals to go and the GOP will be gone the way of the DODO bird.
Hey GOP'ers, can you please do what you can to help things along and DIE SOON?
thanks!
You must be union member...I hope you get more of the last 4 years and then some. LMFAO. We might be getting older, but we still have a better life than you scum sucking leechs ever will in the future. You parasites are like any disease, that kills the host, due for extinction, only you single cell organisms are too unintelligent to know it. The US is heading to 3rd world status on an express elevator. Why? because of people like you, you have no work ethic, and probably do not know what the phrase even means. You've lived off someone else your whole life, and it scares hell out of you to think that at some point in time it will stop. Go visit mexico if you want to see what your future looks like.
Before the talks begin, Obama needs to present a budget, something he has failed to do for the past 4 years. Without a budget he will continue his obscene spending.
@John Devine....idiot, congress is two houses, the senate and house, the senate is Democrat controlled. Did you do drugs entirely through civics class or drop out in the 6th grade? I actually hope the Republicans do not cave on this and we do have another recession. It will serve all you Dems right, you'll get more of what Barry brought us over the last 4 years and maybe you'll drop into a fiscal hole you'll never climb out of.
"AMERI CAN DO SO COMPROMISE"
By using Letters From BOTH Of These Names; REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS
It Spells Out The Solution, But It Takes Letters From Both Names To Spell;
"AMERI CAN DO SO COMPROMISE"
"REPUBLICANS PAST TIME TO COMPROMISE FOR THE GOOD OF AMERICA"