Indeed, I find it rather telling and somewhat fascinating that neither presidential candidate in the October 2012 debates bothered to get into any reality based discussion on the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ issue. President Obama has stated that the sequestration will never happen, and Governor Romney has always stated that he can work across the aisle to get things done. So, what does this mean?
Does it mean that if Obama is reelected that he’ll find a way to raise the debt ceiling and keep spending over a trillion dollars a year in the Federal Budget over the amount taken in from tax revenues? Thus, forbes adding another $5 trillion that he’s already added in the last four years – in the next four years also? Does it mean if the sequestration does happen he will just once again blame the Republicans for refusal to extend the Obama Administration a higher-limit on the taxpayer’s credit card?
You may not realize this but; “The CBO [Congressional Budget Office] predicts a recession if tax hikes and the sequester are allowed to take effect on January 2 [2012],” according to Mr. Steve Forbes in an editorial he submitted to the Wall Street Journal which was in fact published on October 29, 2012.
Well, I am not sure about you, but I think the CBO is correct on this, a raise in taxes will really hurt any concept of an economic recovery and we will once again have negative economic growth for two quarters – thus, we will be in recession. Likewise that plus a double whammy of sequestering, then we have all money flows stopped in the public and private sector. Meaning corporations are not going to spend all that cash they have waiting to see what happens, or until they can overcome their uncertainty.
Basically, the Obama Administration has painted us into an economic corner if we continue on this path without a quick and immediate change in direction away from our “fiscal cliff destiny” with disaster, in other words, so much for a Happy New Year or any uplifting foresight from the January Barometer. Now with all this known, what should the American voters do?
Well, if we elect Governor Mitt Romney then we will ditch all the wasteful crony capitalist type spending which got us into this mess and which will probably continue if we don’t vote Romney into office. Next, if we stop treating our small businesses like “red-headed step children” then we will see job growth there as well. It’s time to tap into that job growth engine and we should have done it even before Obama was sworn into office, sabkobol but better late than never.