Tag: fiscal cliff

The Fiscal Cliff Deal

You have to give Congress credit, the television spot, sound bite and photo op drama was high as the “fiscal cliff’ was “avoided” in New Years Eve and New Years Day votes in the U.S. Senate and House.

Automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that were set to begin yesterday were avoided, but the health of the U.S. economy remains perilous.

What really happened was business as usual on Capitol Hill. By extending the Bush era tax cuts to everyone earning less than $450,000 per year, middle and lower class workers will pay less in income taxes. But approximately 96 percent of millionaires will also be paying less income tax than they would have paid if no deal was passed and Clinton era tax rates were restored.

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The Military and the Fiscal Cliff

As 2012 winds down, we are hearing hourly about the fiscal cliff that the U.S. economy is approaching if our current do-nothing Congress can’t reach a deal on taxes and expenditures.

While much of the present focus is on not raising any new tax revenue and cutting entitlement spending, an overall concept of a budget for the entire U.S. government seems to be seriously absent.

The current fiscal cliff crisis, if you wish to call it that, is two philosophies, left and right, banging heads while no one in Washington attempts to see the bigger picture.

One area which I believe needs further investigation, as well as a reasonable long term plan for what we wish to accomplish, is defense spending.

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