Do you have “fiscal cliff” fatigue? I do.
Are you tired of politicians literally waiting until the last hour to do their jobs? I am.
And are you convinced that politicians truly don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘compromise?’ I am.
I would love to share some encouraging news out of D.C., but unfortunately I’m not one to lie. Our inept Congress passed another short-term fix on December 31st. The bill passed absolutely no cuts in spending. Somehow politicians surmount that as a victory. If anything the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) has said the deal actually increases the already $16.4 trillion in debt by many more trillions. But what’s a few more trillion dollars. A trillion dollars is only an arbitrary number to a politician.
President Obama recently made headlines, while on his annual Hawaiian vacation, that he would NOT negotiate on the debt ceiling. He would NOT offer any spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit. He wants Congress to do what he wants. Afterwards he wants to raise more taxes and then he is willing to concede some cuts. This is what the president calls ‘negotiating.’ Telling the opposing side what you want and refusing to budge at any costs. In some respects the president has earned this aggressive “negotiating” tactic due to the fact that no matter what happens the media narrative will direct most of the blame to Republican leaders.
As I recently wrote, the “fiscal cliff” debate is far from over. If anything we have engaged in a “super fiscal cliff” showdown.
- On Monday, the U.S. reached its debt limit. The Treasury Department has said it can move some numbers around to allow for more spending for about 2 months. Congress has to raise the debt limit. Refusal to raise it would certainly cause another credit downgrade as well as uncertainty in the markets. It would stall the already meager recovery.
- Around the same time, our politicians must approve a bill to starve off the automatic sequestration that would cut government budgets across the boards. The defense and social security budgets amongst them.
- Congress will have to pass another bill to ensure our government does not shutdown on March 27th.
These are the self-created deadlines our politicians have created. These are their “brilliant” ideas.
Deals will probably be brokered in all cases. We of course will have to wait until the last-minute. Otherwise it wouldn’t be “entertaining.” Politics nowadays have become a form of entertainment. There is one thing that we know we can count on from this newly elected 113th Congress. They will do whatever it takes to protect their entitlements, especially their vacations.
That’s something YOU can believe in.
