Why We’re Ungovernable: Gridlock and the Fiscal Cliff

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
By Paul Martin

BY JOHN RUBINO
FinancialSense.com
05/29/2012

Europe’s political problems are hogging the headlines, with good reason. So much debt is coming due so soon that big decisions about Greece and Spain have to be made within the next couple of months to avoid a systemic melt-down.

But the US has some deadlines of its own, with no consensus on what to do about them. Consider:

Congress staring over edge of ‘fiscal cliff’

For Congress, the outlines of the pending fiscal crisis are clear: Don’t do a thing, and watch the economy slip into a double-dip recession early next year. Or cancel the looming tax increases and spending cuts, watch the deficit rise, and push the government ever closer to a European-style debt crisis.

That decision was put in stark terms Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office, which in a new analysis said the economy will plunge into a recession early next year if Congress lets taxes rise and spending be cut, as called for under the law.
But if Congress changes the law to keep taxes low and spending high, it could add more than half a trillion dollars to the deficit in 2013, marking a fifth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits and risking the patience of the country’s creditors.

The CBO numbers come just as the debate is heating up on Capitol Hill over how to handle the looming “fiscal cliff,” which Congress created by continually pushing off tough decisions on both taxes and spending.

The Rest…HERE

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