The Endless Cliff

[marmar]

The Endless Cliff

Robert Kuttner
January 2, 2013

Going forward, Obama will have to stand his ground on spending cuts and the debt ceiling.


Beyond yesterday’s narrow escape from the dreaded fiscal cliff are … more cliffs. President Obama and Congress averted one fiscal calamity of tax-hikes-for-all only to face even steeper cliffs—the sequester, the debt ceiling, the Social Security shortfall, ad infinitum. It is a fiscal Wizard of Oz, an extended odyssey with perils on every side.

The question progressives are asking themselves this morning is whether President Obama settled for too little in the fiscal mini-deal, having traded away his best single piece of leverage—the automatic tax increase on all Americans scheduled to hit today unless Congress acted.

Some, like our colleague Robert Reich, have argued that it would have been better to “go over the cliff”—let tax hikes briefly take effect on everyone, thus increasing pressure on Republicans—rather than to make this agreement.

Mercifully, Obama backed off any “grand bargain.” The deal was a defeat not only for the Republicans but for the Fix the Debt corporate gang. It spared the economy cuts in Social Security or Medicare (for now). .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/article/endless-cliff

[Autumn]

1. Seems like the politicians have a new toy to play with

And play with it they will.

[limpyhobbler]

2. du rec nt

[unblock]

3. as dysfunctional as this congress is, this is a (dysfunctional) way of forcing SOME kind of action.

if it were up to the republicans, congress wouldn't pass anything beyond a resolution declaring apple pie (red delicious only) and moms (from red states and married only) to be wholesome and american.

this at least gets them to pass SOMEthing. so given their severe dysfunction, in a twisted way it's perhaps a good thing....

[DCKit]

4. The article was nicely summed up in one of the cartoons n2doc posted today. nt