editorials

There wont be a deal, Dems wont cut and Boehner wont give enough taxes for Obama. We have a stalemate so off the cliff we go.

Dems have already come up from 250K to 400K, plus an SS cut; the GOP won't give an inch. Boehner's "offer" of only letting the tax cuts expire for the top .02% was rejected by his obstructionist party. Along with his "offer" were cuts to multiple programs and tax credits for lower/middle class families. Not a mention of cutting the ballooning defense budget - just cut everything for the lower/middle class folks. The GOP is a complete joke. A party dying. Whatever damage done by going "over the cliff" will be entirely the fault of the GOP who continue to compromise an inch.

I keep hearing about the chained CPI as a way to save money, but I can't imagine this. If CPI for Social Security was actually calculated properly, then it would increase the costs of Social Security. Energy, food, property taxes, and healthcare are probably some of the biggest expenses for the elderly, and Social Security sure isn't increasing enough to counter those increases. It just sounds like another scheme to make it more difficult for many that have paid their share and getting denied their benefits.

Let it go over the cliff and all of the "temporary " tax code changes will be done. Then we can start clean again.

A surprisingly balanced editorial, as it should be. Dems have dominated control of the federal govt since the relatively prosperous economic days of 1/2007 so it is clearly their side that should bring a GOP-friendly proposal that solves the problem. Indeed, I would love to see a deal that had the fabled GOP debates "10:1 real spending cuts to tax increases" proposed by Harry Reid and President Obama. The media should push the Dems on that as well, then let the drama play out for all to see............

Crystalbay wrote "The GOP is a complete joke. A party dying. Whatever damage done by going "over the cliff" will be entirely the fault of the GOP who continue to compromise an inch." --- I see your statement as what's really wrong with both parties. Both sides are saying it is 100% the fault of everybody but them.

The way the GOP is controlled by the NRA, the Tea Party and Grover Norquist it is probably the only way to go -- over the cliff and then try to clean up things later.

Our economy is like a patient being transferred from surgery to the ICU. Now is not the time to withdraw treatment by looking 10 years into the future! Keep the oxygen flowing. If the Bush tax cuts expire, it would not be the end of the world. Sequestration - intended to scare us into sanity - is the real devil. We made it; we can change it. Any spending cuts should be from current excess spending in military, tax expenditures, etc. When the patient is home safely, we can take time for the "diet and exercise" regime we might need in the ongoing social programs. CPI is a joke! Seniors are currently hobbled with high health care and residential costs coupled with limited investment returns.

I think the solution is big ideas, not nibbling on the edges with tax raises. Scrap the current tax code and put in a flat tax, eliminate all deductions except IRAs, Mortgage, and charity (you pick the rate to pay for government) and make the first 30K non-taxible. Then freeze spending levels, and put in place a 1% reduction each year for the following 10 years (Penny Plan). Special interests and lobby groups will scream, but I think both parties could support this...if they go big. It does both things, takes care of the revenue issue, and puts spending on a down hill glide slope.

Hmmmm. Over the last few days owatonnabill has read gloom-and-doom reports about how this "fiscal cliff", if we as a nation do plummet over it, will result in an increase in the cost of milk, fewer free breakfasts at schools, fewer librarians, etc. etc. Now owatonnabill is admittedly fiscally challenged, but with the glut of lugubriousness extant in our media over this HORRIBLE POSSIBILITY of plunging lock, stock and barrel over this supposed cliff, this is beginning to smell more and more like a con job. Is it possible, just possible, that one of the first casualties of this plunge might be that the spigot pouring the freebies into the trough might be slowed down a bit? And assuming that, is it not logical to assume that such a possibility is terrifying our August Political Leaders who (rightfully) see such a happenstance as negatively affecting THEM at the ballot box? After suitable bemusement and intense ponderation on this topic, owatonnabill has therefore concluded that this dreaded plunge is not unlike the plunge of a needle into one's posterior to rid one's body of a bacterial infection, as opposed to the ever-increasing supply of cough drops that really do nothing at all. America needs a blast of reality, and if a jolt in the butt is what is needed, then bring it on. Far from being the monumental bogieman that our media seems intent on portraying it as, this "plunge" may actually be the answer. Let's find out.