A ‘fiscal cliff’ deal is near: Here are the details

Washington Post - Wonkblog ^ | 17 Dec 12 | Erza Klein

[SkyPilot]

All at once, a

[COBOL2Java]

"You've done very well, John. You and your family will be well taken care of; Mr. Soros has given me his personal assurances. Have another drink!"

[socialism_stinX]

I share your concerns about the long-term economic outlook. I was only talking about next year, 2013. The hurricane is going to create a lot of repair work and construction work on the east coast next year, and that stimulus combined with the oil production boom and a strong automotive industry could generate reasonable economic growth next year. In 2014 we’ll have more risk of a really sluggish economy as the post-Hurricane construction work winds down. There will be real spending cuts, at least reductions from the current planned level of growth. But I’m also concerned that spending, debt, and interest on the debt will all grow too rapidly in the next four years.

[SharpRightTurn]

“Fire Boehner. It’s hard to imagine any one worse for the job.”

You’re right. Boehner has a track record of going from capitulation to total surrender.

[expat2]

Looks like a Boener cave-in.....

[PeterPrinciple]

But we are running out of road.

---

That is the good news. I was in Mongolia after the demise of USSR. It was like the frontier, they were rebuilding without the old bureaucracy and rediscovering their heritage which was chingas Khan and Buddhism. We will do the same and rediscover the Constitution and Christianity.

I predict the USA will go out of business just like the USSR did. Happened overnight according to the papers.

[lwoodham]

A deal is near simply because Christmas is near.

[Ray76]

Heck of a job Johnny.

[willowdean]

It is TIME. We need a new party that will crush thr republicrats in 2014. I meant it!! This is horse hockey. I will never vote again if we don’t have a conservative. These rockefeller socialist in our party have totally ruined the country. Boehner should be arrested as a traitor!!

[houeto]

boner’s job is to do what is right even if it destroys him politically. He should man up, do the right thing and let the people decide his fate.

Not a chance that I could possibly agree with you any more than I do. He took the Oath. Skeletons be damned. If he has them, he did the deeds, no one else.

Country first Mr. Speaker!

[kabar]

I am afraid you lose me when you said the Sequestration cuts to the military would not gut the Dept of Defense and were a “red herring”. That is completely untrue

I am afraid you missed my point. It is not going to happen. Congress and the WH won't allow it to happen. There are too many defense jobs involved throughout the country. The political pressure will be too great.

[houeto]

The biggest deal here is if they agree to raise the debt limit again. As far as Gingrich being elected Speaker goes............

GINGRICH FOR SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE!!!

[kabar]

Most economists including those at the Fed don't paint such a rosy picture. With Europe and Japan in recession and China in a slow down, there is not much optimism that 2013 will be that much better than 2012 if at all.

I doubt if spending will go down. It hasn't at all even during the so-called balance budgets of the Clinton era. Spendng will continue to increase as the population ages. The entitlement spending will go up every year as 10,000 people a day reach age 65 for the next 20 years.

[ctdonath2]

...and a high-intensity emotional conflict, which could go hot, timed to completely blot out any news of the proceedings over the fiscal cliff.

[houeto]

Barry: “Thanks, John. It was good of you to hold down America as I raped her, so that you would become an accessory and I would feel more self-justified.”

Ifr I honestly said how I read that pic I would be barred from here. Seriously. That photo speaks a thousand words.

[WOSG]

“He looks like someone who’s just made a deal with the devil.”

Huh .... I wonder why.

” His conscience will never be clear, ...”

Why do you say that? HE DIDNT RE-ELECT OBAMA. 60 million Americans did. they are the ones responsible for this mess.
If more voters voted Republicans, we’d have a Republican budget. As it is, Mourdock losing, Akin losing, Tester winning ...Anyone who didnt vote Republican voted for higher taxes and more spending.

Hey presto, it’s amazing - that is what we are going to get.

And this too:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/congrats_barry_us_falls_out_of_top_10_most_prosperous_nations.html

Ya know, when we said that re-electing Obama would be a disaster, we meant it, and Boehner is not omnipotent and cant fix that particular fact. He, like us, has to live with it. I’d get drunk too if I were in his shoes!

[County Agent Hank Kimball]

"Don't believe me? Try debating entitlements here for a few hours and watch the glass fly."

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I haven't found that to be the case. I'm sick to death of this crap. I'm 52 and in my working life, between myself and my employer over $350,000 has been confiscated for th bloody ponzi scheme known as "social Security".

I'd gladly accept this deal right now: They can keep every $#@%^&* penny. I don't want a cent back. All I ask in return is to not have any more of my income confiscated over the remaining of my working life.

That's how desparate it is, and how little faith I have that I'll get more than a pittance anyway - or that what I get will be WORTH more than a pittance by the time inflation really starts to take hold.

Hank

[chrisser]

I'd gladly accept this deal right now: They can keep every $#@%^&* penny. I don't want a cent back. All I ask in return is to not have any more of my income confiscated over the remaining of my working life.

I'd go for that. I'm 45 - it's not like I expect SS to be there anyway.

[rarestia]

When I said “His conscience will never be clear...” I meant that it will never be clear after making that deal with the devil, just like anyone who’s ever made a deal with the devil regrets it later. But I would bet the quid pro quo struck with Obama is enough to ensure him some level of comfort, be it material or financial.

I want to believe in the innate goodness of men, and I don’t believe Boehner was always ill-intentioned. I believe the corruption of DC is such that only the purest of heart and soul can resist the temptations there. Washington, D.C. is a modern-day Gomorrah.

[Vigilanteman]

On stimulus, unemployment insurance will be extended . . . Perversely, the payroll tax cut, one of the most stimulative policies in the fiscal cliff, will likely be allowed to lapse, which will deal a big blow to the economy.

More money to enable the professional unemployed, but increased taxes for those of us who actually work and pay the bills for those who reject jobs good enough for the rest of us.

Nice to see Boner and BO are on the same page. < / sarcasm >

[littleharbour]

Redistribution is what is killing European economies and it will kill the American economy. When you punish achievement and subsidize indigence, you get less of the former and more of the latter. No economy can survive this formula, particularly when you add on the demographic bubble that was already scheduled to put unprecedented pressure on Medicare and Social Security. Retire another 20 million hard working baby boomers and you will lose their tax revenue, while simultaneously having to pay for their unfunded Medicare and Social Security. In ten years those $1.5 trillion deficits are going to look like glory days. We will soon live to see $3 Trillion annual deficits. It will keep going until the foreign investors dump US dollars, which will make the current “fiscal cliff” analogy look like a hop over a picket fence.