New York Times (August 5)
“The latest quarterly report on economic growth showed real G.D.P. up only 1.4 percent over the past year, a marked slowdown from year-over-year growth rates posted in 2012. Much of the weakening can be attributed to self-imposed wounds, including the fiscal-cliff showdown at the end of last year and this year’s payroll tax increase and automatic budget cuts, whose effects now appear likely to carry into the second half of the year.” The recovery could stall as the report suggests “Americans do not have the requisite economic security to absorb those imminent blows, let alone other inevitable setbacks, including another possible standoff over the nation’s debt limit.”“The latest quarterly report on economic growth showed real G.D.P. up only 1.4 percent over the past year, a marked slowdown from year-over-year growth rates posted in 2012. Much of the weakening can be attributed to self-imposed wounds, including the fiscal-cliff showdown at the end of last year and this year’s payroll tax increase and automatic budget cuts, whose effects now appear likely to carry into the second half of the year.” The recovery could stall as the report suggests “Americans do not have the requisite economic security to absorb those imminent blows, let alone other inevitable setbacks, including another possible standoff over the nation’s debt limit.”
Tags: Budget cuts, Debt limit, Fiscal cliff, G.D.P., Security, Setbacks, Slowdown, Standoff, Tax increase, U.S.
Washington Post (January 1)
“Congress’s feeble finish to the ‘fiscal cliff’ fiasco” is an imperfect solution. It will do “little to address the nation’s long-term debt problem. But for all its weaknesses, the bill’s enactment is far better than a failure by this Congress to act before it adjourns Thursday.”
Tags: Congress, Debt, Fiscal cliff, U.S., Weaknesses
Wall Street Journal (December 29)
“The fiscal-cliff melodrama has become one of those bad cable reality shows, a sort of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” without the sincerity though not without the plastic surgery. In the latest episode on Friday, the actors met at the White House in a last-ditch attempt to avert the cliff they had created, and that they all claim would be a catastrophe to jump off, but that they hope they can blame on each other if they do.”
Tags: Cable, Congress, Fiscal cliff, Melodrama, Reality shows, U.S., White House
New York Times (December 27)
“Just before the Christmas break, negotiations on the so-called fiscal cliff ended on an absurdist note.” House Republicans rejected the President’s “overly generous budget deal,” as well as “their own leadership’s proposal.” This is unacceptable. “No deal means the end of federal unemployment benefits” for 3 million people and an increase in payroll taxes for 125 million households.
Chicago Tribune (December 25)
This Christmas is also “Cliffmas, the day none of us wanted to reach with our elected officials in Washington not through heaving lumps of coal at one another. Remember, all of us are a week from a rush of federal tax increases and needlessly abrupt spending cuts because they wrote this showdown into law last year.” One can only hope that in the coming days, the politicians may “decide they’d rather not toss all of us into the chasm.”
Tags: Christmas, Cliffmas, Fiscal cliff, Politicians, Spending cuts, Tax increases, U.S.
Financial Times (December 14)
There is growing belief that the fiscal cliff might be easier to solve after taking the end of the year plunge. “Both sides believe there would be little difference in terms of impact on the US economy between striking a deal on December 31 or waiting until January 4…. Such complacency is dangerous. The world is watching to see if the US can govern itself responsibly. No one has faith in Washington’s New Year’s resolutions.”
Tags: Complacency, Economy, Fiscal cliff, Govern, Resolutions, U.S.
USA Today (November 29)
As the U.S. approaches the fiscal cliff “an alarming number of people…are declaring that going over the cliff wouldn’t be so bad after all.” It would. Congress needs to reach a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. “While spending cuts and tax hikes are needed to rein in federal deficits, having them kick in all at once would be like a drug overdose that plunges the economy into a new recession, according to the Congressional Budget Office and independent economists.”
Chicago Tribune (November 8)
After two years of fighting, the score in Washington looks just the same: a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. “Guaranteed gridlock? Not necessarily.” The Tribune is hopeful status quo will actually provide the momentum to overcome the looming fiscal cliff. “With Washington’s power equation constant, this is, surprisingly, the ideal moment to take unpopular steps and rescue our government from potential doomsdays — the first of them scheduled for Jan. 1, less than eight weeks away…. This lame-duck Congress and re-elected president could give the American people a marvelous holiday present.”
Tags: Congress, Democrats, Fiscal cliff, Gridlock, Republican, Washington
Wall Street Journal (October 29)
“The fiscal cliff that is looming on Jan. 2—a $500 billion combination of rising tax rates and expiring preferential tax policies—is a historic and completely obvious threat to our economy. In 2008, no one knew that the financial system was about to face cardiac arrest. But every American knows that unless Congress acts quickly, we will be hit with economy-crushing tax increases at the start of the New Year.”
Tags: Congress, Ecnomic threat, Fiscal cliff, New Year
Los Angeles Times (September 12)
In the U.S. a fiscal cliff is approaching when tax cuts expire on January 1, government spending is scheduled for automatic reduction and limits on government borrowing will be reached. “The message from the analysts at Moody’s and S&P is that lawmakers can’t keep putting off the day of reckoning. Moody’s set a reasonable condition for avoiding a downgrade: adopting policies that stabilize, then reduce the debt as a percentage of the U.S. economy over the next several years.”
