Fiscal Cliff... Good or Bad (deduction, debt, mortgage, paycheck)

[jimhcom]

Seeing as the gutless wonders in Washington are incapable of doing anything to alleviate the budget mess, would just allowing the tax increases and budget cuts to happen be the best thing for this country?

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by jimhcom

Seeing as the gutless wonders in Washington are incapable of doing anything to alleviate the budget mess, would just allowing the tax increases and budget cuts to happen be the best thing for this country?

Except for the resulting recession and impact on some of the populace.

Clearly a reduction in spending is needed but sending more resources to DC to be squandered is not good.

The country needs much better balance and a smaller government but I have little hope that will happen.

[DSOs]

^^When the citizenry DIRECTLY sees the cost (taxes) they'll learn to spend money/govern correctly.


EVERYONE gets to directly see the reality of how the USGov’t/Taxpayers’ have been paying/coping with Deflation for the past 10-15 years. The Bush & Obama tax cuts; mortgage deductions; underclass welfare; & a myriad of other standardized tax incentives have compensated for wage stagflation, while keeping DEMAND UP so the Economy can stay healthy—especially FIRE.

Debt-induced consumerism is quickly running its course via saturation. They need more spending bodies, but can’t wait for natural population growth to catch up!

Conclusion: It’s time to man-up** & realize that we have been royally hoodwinked! The financial apparatus/Big business received good-intentioned, anti-deflation help from the USGov’t/Taxpayers; & now they’re being apathetic & capitalizing via moral hazard.

**Deception can be costly & sometimes it takes a good amount of painful effort to correct an injustice.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by jimhcom

Seeing as the gutless wonders in Washington are incapable of doing anything...

Just one gutless wonder.

All he has to do is rap the gavel a couple times...
and by that to call the House to order and to vote on the Senate bill.

...would just allowing the tax increases and budget cuts to happen be the best thing for this country?

No. That would NOT be the best thing.
Actual adult leaders practicing responsible governance will be the best thing.

[Snowball7]

I'm like Pontius Pilate, I wash my hands of this madness...
my voice and my vote are unable to influence these events...
nothing I can do about it but take care of #1 and #'s 2,3 and 4
so to speak.

[Malloric]

Mostly good. It's all about the "soft landing" which unfortunately has been horribly abused. Soft landing means you don't immediately cut essential services but rather phase them out. You don't just yank someone's section 8, lay off two-thirds of the military, end all non-essential government contracts all at once. You do it gradually.

The big fiscal cliff item this year is likely the 2% payroll tax cut. Maybe couple that with a 5% reduction in all discretionary spending, including defense. In the long term, mandatory spending needs to be cut as well, the majority of which is social spending on medicare and social security. We also need to look at why agribus is gettin $155 billion in corporate welfare a year while the SBA, which is apparently where economic growth is going to come from, gets $1.5 billion. Hmm. Maybe they should only get 10 times as much instead of 100 times? And I don't mean you do that by increasing the SBA funding 10-fold.

[Ollie1946]

There is no one size fits all with this. If you happen to fall into the AMT, then you are going to take a hit. If your income sources are W2 only, then you might see a tax hit depending on your deductions which might be overcome by AMT. No one knows at this point. If you have a business or a farm then estate taxes are going to be serious hit when that time comes. If you are a government employee with sequestration, you might be furloughed or even laid off. If your life is in department of defense, 500 billion cuts in over next decade will mean some big changes. But like Obamacare, the devil is in the details and there is precious little info on that at least that I've found.

[eskercurve]

Personally, while I do not relish at seeing a sizeable amount of money be taken out of my paycheck next year ...

I recognize that the past 12 years of spend-spend-spend on the War on Terror, War on Recession, and lately the seeming disconnect between the peoples' sense of entitlement (CUT SPENDING ... but not MY spending!) means that we get the budget we wanted.

Which apparently means higher taxes to pay for the wars, entitlements, and health care laws we wanted.

Nothing wrong with that. If you want less of your money spent on taxes, elect different people to Congress. If the people you elect do just that but still can't muster enough strength to overcome, then it just means that's how the cookie crumbles and that's how a democratic republic works.

[CaptainNJ]

the tax increases are bad, the spending cuts dont go far enough

[bobtn]

Originally Posted by eskercurve

Personally, while I do not relish at seeing a sizeable amount of money be taken out of my paycheck next year ...

I recognize that the past 12 years of spend-spend-spend on the War on Terror, War on Recession, and lately the seeming disconnect between the peoples' sense of entitlement (CUT SPENDING ... but not MY spending!) means that we get the budget we wanted.

Which apparently means higher taxes to pay for the wars, entitlements, and health care laws we wanted.

Nothing wrong with that. If you want less of your money spent on taxes, elect different people to Congress. If the people you elect do just that but still can't muster enough strength to overcome, then it just means that's how the cookie crumbles and that's how a democratic republic works.