Time for the other shoe to drop?

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-precipice-20120401,0,2407722.story
April 1, 2012
On some unsatisfying level, we appreciate the current political conniptions in Washington over your tax dollars and your frightening taxpayer debt. These are big issues that deserve the passions they generate on left and right. They also deserve gutsy and decisive remedies — which, unfortunately, they're not getting. But before we go to the video of what has and hasn't happened, let's stroll over to Ben Bernanke's "massive fiscal cliff." Be careful where you step:
In a Leap Day monologue to a House committee, the Federal Reserve chairman warned that, unless someone actually does something, a cascade of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for January will, together, wash this lightweight economic recovery over his metaphorical cliff. Bernanke is too prim an academic to say, "Then you can kiss your GDP goodbye," but he came close: The removal of so much money from the day-to-day U.S. economy, he said, could trigger another financial crisis, spike interest rates up, and drive growth down. Can you say "Europe"?
Alan Blinder can. He's a Princeton economist and former Fed vice chairman. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, he predicts that falling off "the cliff" will slash U.S. economic output by 3.5 percent, a wound equivalent to austerity measures that indebted European governments are enduring. That abrupt a contraction "would be a disaster for the United States, highly likely to stifle the recovery."
You'd think the presidential and congressional candidates of both parties — the men and women who forever tell us how devoted they are to "American jobs" — would have acted by now to assure employers, and their workers, and the world's financial markets, and the foreigners who buy our copious debt, that Washington doesn't need to suffer another crisis in order to prevent it.
Nah, Washington isn't there yet. it's an election year and, well, you know.
The big picture here is that while we need spending cuts and revenue hikes — in a ratio of 3-to-1 or 4-to-1, we think — losing all of this liquidity at once would torpedo the economy. Yet here's the January agenda:
•That 2-percentage-point cut in your federal payroll tax for Social Security? Gone. (Illinois residents, don't confuse this hike with the 2-percentage-point personal income tax increase that Gov. Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats enacted last year; that's still all yours.)
•The tax cuts of 2001, 2003 and 2010? Gone, for rich and poor Americans: Rates rise, child tax credit drops by half, estate tax reverts to high 2001 levels, marriage penalty increases, and as the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget summarizes, "various tax benefits for education, retirement savings and low-income individuals disappear."
•Extended jobless benefits? Gone.
•Patches to the Alternative Minimum Tax? Gone. The CRFB again: If a new patch isn't enacted retroactively for 2012, the number of returns subject to the AMT will go from 4 million to more than 30 million now, and more than 40 million by the end of the decade.
•Automatic, across-the-board spending cuts to defense and other programs kick in. Blame Congress' failure last fall to cut a big deal reducing deficits and debt.
Oh, and who can forget our old friend the debt ceiling, which caused so much distemper in 2011. Your $15.5 trillion in taxpayer debt is rising so fast that the ceiling probably needs to be raised by year's end. A Congress coming off the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits may balk, and surely will rumble.
Against this backdrop, the people you send to Washington have solved ... what?
Last week the Republican-led House rejected, 414-0, the budget President Barack Obama had proposed for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The vote was a GOP stunt, but it did put Democrats on record as unwilling to endorse the Obama plan's big tax increases, plus its more than $6 trillion in new debt over the next decade.
The House did pass, 228-191, the budget that Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) proposes. Ryan's plan isn't perfect, but he again demonstrates the courage to keep challenging runaway costs in Medicare. His changes would affect only Americans who are not yet 55.
Trouble is, Ryan's plan is as dead on arrival in the Senate as Obama's was in the House. The Senate, where many of the majority Democrats face tough re-election campaigns, notoriously has gone more than 1,000 days without passing any budget. Minority Republicans note that their timid colleagues do, however, continue to collect handsome paychecks.
We had hopes for yet another plan, which didn't get much ink: a Go-Big bipartisan proposal to reduce expected deficits by more than $4 trillion over 10 years. The plan, with Illinois Democrats Michael Quigley and Daniel Lipinski and Republican Robert Dold among the co-sponsors, echoed the Simpson-Bowles deficit panel report that Obama requested but inexplicably shelved in 2010.
When this ambitious plan came to a vote Wednesday night, though, the House killed it, 382-38. It was as if Republicans and Democrats wanted to prove they could agree on something — chiefly that they exist to do their leaders' bidding. See the other editorial on this page.
Fortunately, voters write performance reviews for most of these folks on Nov. 6. If lawmakers haven't pulled America back from "the cliff," those voters can push congressional careers over it. 

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Wots Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: Mar 18 2009 Status: Offline Points: 94	Post Options Post Reply Quote Wots Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Time for the other shoe to drop? Posted: Apr 03 2012 at 3:50pm
	http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-precipice-20120401,0,2407722.story April 1, 2012 On some unsatisfying level, we appreciate the current political conniptions in Washington over your tax dollars and your frightening taxpayer debt. These are big issues that deserve the passions they generate on left and right. They also deserve gutsy and decisive remedies — which, unfortunately, they're not getting. But before we go to the video of what has and hasn't happened, let's stroll over to Ben Bernanke's "massive fiscal cliff." Be careful where you step: In a Leap Day monologue to a House committee, the Federal Reserve chairman warned that, unless someone actually does something, a cascade of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for January will, together, wash this lightweight economic recovery over his metaphorical cliff. Bernanke is too prim an academic to say, "Then you can kiss your GDP goodbye," but he came close: The removal of so much money from the day-to-day U.S. economy, he said, could trigger another financial crisis, spike interest rates up, and drive growth down. Can you say "Europe"? Alan Blinder can. He's a Princeton economist and former Fed vice chairman. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, he predicts that falling off "the cliff" will slash U.S. economic output by 3.5 percent, a wound equivalent to austerity measures that indebted European governments are enduring. That abrupt a contraction "would be a disaster for the United States, highly likely to stifle the recovery." You'd think the presidential and congressional candidates of both parties — the men and women who forever tell us how devoted they are to "American jobs" — would have acted by now to assure employers, and their workers, and the world's financial markets, and the foreigners who buy our copious debt, that Washington doesn't need to suffer another crisis in order to prevent it. Nah, Washington isn't there yet. it's an election year and, well, you know. The big picture here is that while we need spending cuts and revenue hikes — in a ratio of 3-to-1 or 4-to-1, we think — losing all of this liquidity at once would torpedo the economy. Yet here's the January agenda: •That 2-percentage-point cut in your federal payroll tax for Social Security? Gone. (Illinois residents, don't confuse this hike with the 2-percentage-point personal income tax increase that Gov. Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats enacted last year; that's still all yours.) •The tax cuts of 2001, 2003 and 2010? Gone, for rich and poor Americans: Rates rise, child tax credit drops by half, estate tax reverts to high 2001 levels, marriage penalty increases, and as the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget summarizes, "various tax benefits for education, retirement savings and low-income individuals disappear." •Extended jobless benefits? Gone. •Patches to the Alternative Minimum Tax? Gone. The CRFB again: If a new patch isn't enacted retroactively for 2012, the number of returns subject to the AMT will go from 4 million to more than 30 million now, and more than 40 million by the end of the decade. •Automatic, across-the-board spending cuts to defense and other programs kick in. Blame Congress' failure last fall to cut a big deal reducing deficits and debt. Oh, and who can forget our old friend the debt ceiling, which caused so much distemper in 2011. Your $15.5 trillion in taxpayer debt is rising so fast that the ceiling probably needs to be raised by year's end. A Congress coming off the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits may balk, and surely will rumble. Against this backdrop, the people you send to Washington have solved ... what? Last week the Republican-led House rejected, 414-0, the budget President Barack Obama had proposed for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The vote was a GOP stunt, but it did put Democrats on record as unwilling to endorse the Obama plan's big tax increases, plus its more than $6 trillion in new debt over the next decade. The House did pass, 228-191, the budget that Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) proposes. Ryan's plan isn't perfect, but he again demonstrates the courage to keep challenging runaway costs in Medicare. His changes would affect only Americans who are not yet 55. Trouble is, Ryan's plan is as dead on arrival in the Senate as Obama's was in the House. The Senate, where many of the majority Democrats face tough re-election campaigns, notoriously has gone more than 1,000 days without passing any budget. Minority Republicans note that their timid colleagues do, however, continue to collect handsome paychecks. We had hopes for yet another plan, which didn't get much ink: a Go-Big bipartisan proposal to reduce expected deficits by more than $4 trillion over 10 years. The plan, with Illinois Democrats Michael Quigley and Daniel Lipinski and Republican Robert Dold among the co-sponsors, echoed the Simpson-Bowles deficit panel report that Obama requested but inexplicably shelved in 2010. When this ambitious plan came to a vote Wednesday night, though, the House killed it, 382-38. It was as if Republicans and Democrats wanted to prove they could agree on something — chiefly that they exist to do their leaders' bidding. See the other editorial on this page. Fortunately, voters write performance reviews for most of these folks on Nov. 6. If lawmakers haven't pulled America back from "the cliff," those voters can push congressional careers over it.
	Wots Liberalism: Moochers Electing Looters to Steal from Producers.