U. S. News & World Report Chides Do-Nothing Congress Heading To Fiscal Cliff!

[mascale]

Famous pundit Herb Krugman directly chided House Republicans for failing to even bring the Obama-Biden 2011 stimulus plan to a vote: And then trying to blame the Obama-Biden policies passed only in the Senate for creating a certain stagnation during Spring of this year.

Now going forward, U. S. News & World Report is also on board: With the same message!

CBO Chief: Do-Nothing Congress Stalling The Economy - US News and World Report

Coincidentally, Moody's is already threatening another downgrade of the bond rating, creating a "negative watch" scenario.

For no major purposes, here(?), anyone can see how impacted real business is with the federal budget. Federal Contractors are cited as amongst those most concerned.

This has happened with the Conservatives running the legislatures before. Federal Budget matters are put on hold, like now. No sub-contracting happens! Corporate procurment offices freeze. Annual budgets cannot be created. Purchasing cannot happen.

"What do they know, and when did they know it?!" as is usual: Comes to Mind!

U. S. News & World Report--even now comes to mind: As helping to identify the "usual suspects," creating the problem!

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
("Nein! Nein! Nein!" even itself comes to mind(?)!)

 

[kwc57]

Curious, did he mention obstructionist Harry Reid over in the Senate who kills bills and doesn't let them even be discussed, much less voted on? I didn't think so.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Krugman is simply being the same disingenuous Kool-Aid provider he has been for 20 years.
No mention of how the Democrats have not proposed a budget in 3 years.
No mention of how Obama's past two budget proposals had over $1 trillion in deficit spending - which would have turned into at least $1.5 trillion in deficit spending.

Nah...it is all the Republicans fault. That is...until you tune into Hannity tonight - then it will be all the Democrats fault.
Same thing tomorrow.

 

[kwc57]

It amazes me that liberals and the left leaning apologetic media seem to think that Congress is only the House which is run by Republicans and seem to have no concept that there is also the Senate which is run by the Democrats. Convenient memory lapse.

 

[mascale]

In the article:
__________________________

During the debt ceiling debacle last summer, Congress set automatic spending cuts in place to force an agreement by the so-called super committee, a group of legislators saddled with the task of hammering out a deal to rein in the national debt. Their failure to find common ground then triggered $1.2 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to take place on Jan. 2, 2013.

Steven Davis, deputy dean at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, studies the effects of policy uncertainty on the economy and agrees with Elmendorf that the threat of looming sequestration, expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, and the threat of an upcoming debt ceiling crisis are likely affecting the economy now even though none of them have actually occurred.And since stock markets dread uncertainty, Wall Street has already settled into a period of extreme volatility.
_________________________

One main Wall Street effect has been various houses advising investors to ignore the fiscal cliff any buy while everything is cheap!

Really Cheap hasn't happened since March, 2009. Likely many have finally left the Labor Force, as a result! So far, Washington Statisticians don't seem to know about these things. In the article, CBO is small---but still, they discuss the money.

Anyone guesses that liberals already know about discussing the money!

Mostly Milton Friedman types: New absolutely nothing about the money. Bill Clinton noted only last week: That actually it is subject to arithmetic! Friedman-types are a bit more primitive about it. "More" means "inflation," even when there is none(?)!

Liberals actually have a different concept. The concept is really vastly different from an Ayn Rand type, standing on a street corner, along Van Nuys Blvd., in Los Angeles, even looking like Ayn Rand! "Buy My books! Buy My books! Buy my books and y'all be Saved! Uh Huh!"

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(Not many White Eyes even: In San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles, only 100 years ago! There be no water, there! That be--fiscal disaster, until Roosevelt built the Sepulveda Basin, to contain the flash floods--near Van Nuys Blvd., now! After water happened, the area then did become a home, and even to Refugees that even Europe somehow let escape(?)!)

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken Not Stirred!"
(Who Are Those Indigenous Peoples, even now? "Oy! Oy! Oy! Oy!" make funny sound in wigwams, where there were none! "Si! Si" Si" S!" funny sound even before!)

 

[kwc57]

Since you have trouble catching on, let me repeat the question. Where is the discussion concerning Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate in your article? No blame there? None at all? Hack.

 

[expat_panama]

...Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate in your article? No blame there? None at all? Hack.

That "Fiscal Cliff" has to be blamed on the 'Reid-Obama' axis of evil. They passed the Pelosi budget years ago and have seen to it that all that tax'n'spending stays in place no matter what the Republican House does.


Democrat budget scam = 'fiscal cliff'; no way around it.

 

[mascale]

(1) Subseqeunt "Reagan Trajectory" Two, under Bush-Cheney, Even More Deficit under Bush-Cheney was sent to the millionaires and billionaires using the TARP deficit support of only a tiny segment of the marketplace, the rich!

(2) Subsequent "Reagan Trajectory Two," under Bush-Cheney, Obama-Biden created the Great Stimulation--including of the marketplace as a whole--which the stock markets noticed after March, 2009.

(3) Subsequent "Reagan Trajectory Two," under Bush-Cheney, the unemployment rate would rise to more than 10% official rates, and then fall to 8.1% in the most recent reporting.

(4) Even that most recent report apparently cannot find enriched investors taking some time off from labor force participation.

(5) The "Fiscal Cliff" was an agreement in the two federal legislatures--Reid McConnell, Boehner-Pelosi--to create a January, 2013 trigger in the event that Boehner-Cantor was shown to be as stupid and inept as they both looked and had also been shown to be in person.

(6) Boehner-Canator were unable to do leadership of the Tea Party in their own ranks, supportive of the agreement. That caused the "Trigger," now called the "Fiscal Cliff."

(7) The trigger does not originate of Pelosi-Reid, but is a process outcome including many players.

(8) Noted in the linked OP article: Real business depends on federal contracting.

(9) Rep. Ryan is famously on record opposed to federal contracting "spending."

So without the myopic kwc57 and expat_panama, devoid of analysis kinds of commentary, in their posts: The Role of Pelosi-Reid is clearly shown, both opposed to the "Fiscal Cliff."

So without the myopic kwc57 and expat_panama, devoide of analysis kinds of comentary, in their posts: The Role of Boehner-Cantor-Ryan is clearly shown as the cause of the "Fiscal Cliff."

U. S. News & World Report is properly OP linked!

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(Pelosi-Reid send players to Lands of Many Nations, understanding resorts and cash-required games of adults. Boehner-Cantor-Reid clearly intend to take cash players away from lands of Many Nations--opposed to federal contracting dollars, supportive only of the Tea Party and the "Fiscal Cliff!")

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Obama gonna push dem tax an' spend politicians off the fiscal cliff...

Officials: Obama ready to veto a bill blocking ‘fiscal cliff’ without tax hike for rich
October 17 - President Obama is prepared to veto legislation to block year-end tax hikes and spending cuts, collectively known as the “fiscal cliff,” unless Republicans bow to his demand to raise tax rates for the wealthy, administration officials said.

Freed from the political and economic constraints that have tied his hands in the past, Obama is ready to play hardball with Republicans, who have so far successfully resisted a deal to tame the debt that includes higher taxes, Obama’s allies say. In the days after the November election, the tables will be turned: Taxes are scheduled to rise dramatically in January for people at all income levels, and Republicans will be unable to stop those automatic increases alone. If he wins reelection, Obama may finally be able to dictate the terms of a bipartisan debt-reduction deal. And if he loses to Republican Mitt Romney, Obama could make sure that tax rates rise before he hands over the keys to the White House on Inauguration Day in late January. Administration officials declined to say whether the veto threat will stand if Obama loses the election.

Obama has never explicitly said whether he is prepared to let the new year arrive without taking action to avoid the cliff. Some Republicans, noting that the president has backed off demands for higher taxes twice in the past, are skeptical that he will stand firm now. But his veto threat challenges Republicans to a dangerous game of chicken over a fiscal event that would raise taxes for nearly 90 percent of households, slice deeply into military and domestic budgets, and probably spark a brief recession. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other Republican leaders are already complaining about the president’s “ ‘Thelma and Louise’ economic strategy.” (In the 1991 film, the lead characters drive off a cliff in a 1966 Thunderbird convertible rather than surrender to police.)

But Obama’s threat has concentrated their attention. If the president emerges victorious on Election Day, top GOP aides in both chambers say Republicans would press him to abandon his quest to raise the top rates, in exchange for a more meaningful prize — a long-sought agreement to stabilize the debt, in part with significant new tax revenue. Virtually all Republicans have long opposed higher taxes. “That’s the solution to the Rubik’s Cube: The current president wants additional revenues. Republicans don’t want higher tax rates,” said Jonathan Traub of Deloitte Tax LLP, who served until earlier this year as a senior aide to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.). Rewriting the tax code to increase tax collections without raising rates, Traub said, is “the only way to make the squares line up.”

Impediments to a deal are legion. Democrats pumped up on an Obama victory would resist compromise on the top rate, a point of partisan contention since it fell from 39.6 percent to 35 percent more than a decade ago as part of a package of tax cuts signed by President George W. Bush. The Bush tax cuts, which decreased rates at all income levels, are set to expire Dec. 31. Obama and other Democrats want to extend them for income under $250,000 a year, maintaining the low rates for about 97 percent of taxpayers.

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See also:

If elected, Romney wants a say in 'fiscal cliff'
19 Oct.`12 WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's transition team is quietly talking with government officials and Capitol Hill to develop a plan, if he's elected, to prevent massive cuts to the defense budget and extend tax cuts first passed under President George W. Bush.

The Republican's goal is to put his own stamp on legislation to fix the so-called fiscal cliff well before his Jan. 20 inauguration. The tax cuts are set to expire Jan. 1, and economists in both political parties warn say the reductions in spending combined with higher taxes would likely throw the country back into recession. The economic policy planning is a major element of what's dubbed "The Readiness Project" inside the campaign.

Led by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, Romney's transition team has been at work since summer preparing to choose Cabinet officials and build the new government if he's elected. The team has held events to raise private money, hired more staff in Washington, and moved into bigger, government-provided offices Sept. 4. Some of Romney's top campaign advisers, including former private equity colleague Bob White, are preparing to take on larger roles in the transition. Looming over the standard transition discussions is the big policy fight on the horizon — created by lawmakers trying to force a deal to reform entitlements and cut government spending — and what role Romney should take if elected.

President Barack Obama also faced significant, pressing policy problems and began grappling with them before the inauguration. The country's financial system was in crisis, work was beginning on an economic stimulus plan and U.S. automakers were still in trouble. In the early months of his term, Obama pushed a stimulus bill through Congress and restructured the auto companies in a bailout process that Bush had begun. This time around, the newly inaugurated president would likely face the winter session of Congress with negotiations between lawmakers over the economy well under way. Congress created the fiscal cliff threat when it tied enormous defense and discretionary spending budget cuts to passing a broad deficit-reduction deal.

Romney's campaign refused to discuss its transition team's fiscal-cliff planning at length, with officials careful not to be perceived as preparing prematurely for an election far from decided. Republicans on Capitol Hill said transition officials have begun informal conversations with GOP leaders in the House, and lawmakers are paying close attention to Romney's public statements about how he wants to handle the fiscal cliff in the event he wins. Romney has said that if elected, he wants Congress and Obama to put off any permanent solution until after the inauguration and has suggested he would be open to fixing the problems with a series of separate bills instead of one grand bargain. "Let's have a year of runway, or even six months of runway after the new president is elected so that we can, we can have the tax reform and the military spending plans and the budget plans that are consistent with that individual's leadership and views," Romney has said.

More http://news.yahoo.com/elected-romney-wants-fiscal-cliff-084434165--election.html

Well, duh if he's President, won't he have a say? And he wants people to elect him??

 

[Rshermr]

...Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate in your article? No blame there? None at all? Hack.

That "Fiscal Cliff" has to be blamed on the 'Reid-Obama' axis of evil. They passed the Pelosi budget years ago and have seen to it that all that tax'n'spending stays in place no matter what the Republican House does.


Democrat budget scam = 'fiscal cliff'; no way around it.

And your proof is?????

 

[Oddball]

...Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate in your article? No blame there? None at all? Hack.

That "Fiscal Cliff" has to be blamed on the 'Reid-Obama' axis of evil. They passed the Pelosi budget years ago and have seen to it that all that tax'n'spending stays in place no matter what the Republican House does.


Democrat budget scam = 'fiscal cliff'; no way around it.

WTF are you blabbering about?

Obiedoodles floated budgets haven garnered any votes anywhere, to the point that we're going on four years running the gubmint in continuing resolutions.

 

[RoadVirus]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Obama gonna push dem tax an' spend politicians off the fiscal cliff...

Officials: Obama ready to veto a bill blocking ‘fiscal cliff’ without tax hike for rich
October 17 - President Obama is prepared to veto legislation to block year-end tax hikes and spending cuts, collectively known as the “fiscal cliff,” unless Republicans bow to his demand to raise tax rates for the wealthy, administration officials said.

Great...so Obama is going to risk the national security of this country just because he wants higher taxes. Vote him out in November!

 

[waltky]

G-20 to focus on U.S. fiscal cliff...

United States’ ‘fiscal cliff’ biggest risk for Canada, G20
Nov 5, 2012 — Slowly but intensely, the focus of the world’s financial leaders has shifted from Europe to the United States, where a fiscal crisis threatens to push the country back into recession — taking the rest of us with it.

With a divisive and still-too-close-to-call U.S. election only days away, Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers who gathered Sunday in Mexico City are urging political action to avoid the looming “fiscal cliff” of government spending cuts and tax hikes set to take effect next year in the United States. Still on the back burner, but expected to move front-and-centre, another issue is heating up — the slow progress in global financial reforms, known as Basel III.

Eurozone’s debt problems, now nearly three years old, have fueled concerns over another global downturn. That crisis appears to have entered a more positive phase — though far from resolution — as the European Central Bank works with governments and the International Monetary Fund to pull Greece, most critically, from the edge of collapse and a still-possible exit from the 17-nation currency zone.

The fate of Spain and Italy — facing their own sovereign debt concerns — remains unclear, and still a work in progress. A draft communique from the two-day meeting is expected to highlight the elevated risks to the global economy, including from the potential fiscal tightening in the U.S. and Japan, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing sources.

“Global growth remains modest and risks remain elevated, including due to possible delays in the complex implementation of recent policy announcements in Europe, a potential sharp fiscal tightening in the United States and Japan, weaker growth in some emerging markets and additional supply shocks in some commodity markets,” the draft said, according to the source.

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