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More on the fiscal cliff talks: The President's opening bid - delivered this afternoon by Tim...

  • Thursday, November 29, 2012, 5:27 PM ET
    More on the fiscal cliff talks: The President's opening bid - delivered this afternoon by Tim Geithner - calls for a $1.6T tax increase, a $50B economic-stimulus program, and delivering to the WH the power to raise the federal debt limit without congressional approval. It's a "step backward," says Mitch McConnell. It sounds more like what it's described as: An opening bid.
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This news story has 22 comments:

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    ...and the spending cuts are...
    29 Nov 2012, 05:33 PM Reply Like
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    "...and the spending cuts are..." ====> more spending
    29 Nov 2012, 05:49 PM Reply Like
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    Seriously, going over the fiscal cliff is better than Obama's lip service to spending cuts. He didn't even mention entitlement reform on the campaign trail and he certainly isn't mentioning it now.
    30 Nov 2012, 08:14 AM Reply Like
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    This emperor is actually so sick in the head, like an emotionally stunted child, with his powermad virus of a redistributive dictatorship that he thinks he can just say whatever he wants and it will be so. Raise taxes, raise the debt! More, more MORE!

    He is taking the Krugman acid.

    This economic meth lab experiment will not end well.

    Thank you, young & dumb, for your vote. You are about to get what you deserve.
    29 Nov 2012, 05:36 PM Reply Like
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    Why are we having Congressional debates in the first place? Can't all this be resolved by Executive Order?
    29 Nov 2012, 05:45 PM Reply Like
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    Well stated Wyatt and Tack's post gave me a chuckle
    30 Nov 2012, 12:31 PM Reply Like
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    And the sad part is that the proposed $1.6 T tax increase ( I assume over 10 years) wouldn't put a pin-head sized dent in the current ANNUAL deficits. Moreover, there won't really be an spending cuts since they only talk about "growth" cuts being the rate of growth.
    29 Nov 2012, 06:03 PM Reply Like
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    I listened to Harry Reid the other day state (with a serious expression) how they had worked hard and cut one billion dollars from the budget. Of course, he failed to contrast that with the annual shortfall (deficit) of 1,000+ billion. And so, I realized the socialist party continues to govern solely based upon their assessment that the electorate is too mathematically challenged to do simple "less than, greater than" comparisons, and too logically challenged to realize the outcomes that such irresponsibility will produce.
    29 Nov 2012, 08:31 PM Reply Like
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    << WH the power to raise the federal debt limit without congressional approval.>>
    When is the debt ceiling being raised?
    Expect a chinese-russian-brazilian currency pearl harbor attack in the next 4 years.
    29 Nov 2012, 06:20 PM Reply Like
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    Oh, yes, three highly-stable, transparent countries, where investors are sure to flock for safety. Are you kidding?
    29 Nov 2012, 06:31 PM Reply Like
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    LOL! And ya think we are transparent here? what markets did bennie boy pump today? How many phoney defaulting FHA loans bought houses today? How many students were given loans they probably will walk away from?

    Come on already. Propaganda is flowing. The constant diversions fool the masses. Fiscal cliff. what a bunch of non-sense. The debt ceiling will be renewed again and again and again. And this idiot bernank will keep is experiment going until it busts.
    29 Nov 2012, 07:02 PM Reply Like
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    Ham:

    You may not like our present policy, and I don't either, but if you think the world is going to rush to Russia, China or Brazil for currency stability, then, you have really lost it.

    I spent a career managing business and traveling in all three of those countries, and I can assure you that if we're the frying pan, they're the fire.

    It's worth adding that any thoughts of some composite "basket" forming a reserve currency are laughable. Europe demonstrates the impossibility of having unified decisions on currency issuance and finance policy, and the primary requirement for any reserve currency is that it can be controlled by the issuer in its production (the Fed) and defended by its military, if necessary.
    29 Nov 2012, 07:40 PM Reply Like
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    The going in position sounds a lot like what the current law aka Fiscal Cliff does. Bam wants to "pay" for the "temporary" extension of payroll deductions (pushing some of the extra cash back in to the SocSec "Trust" fund), and extending the "emergency" jobless benefits (pushing some of the extra cash into Dept of Labor). The only difference seems to be who sends the cash to Washington. The cuts in the current law exceed those proposed by Bam.

    And then, Bam doesn't want to be held responsible any more for what follows the $1.1 FY 2012 deficit--no one has mentioned the new costs in 2013 thanks to Bam-care yet. The numbers start to be staggering after 1 Jan. Can you say $1.8 trillion? The sequester seems tame by comparison, and then the whores can vote a tax rate cut for 98% of the population. The sequester actually buys them more time on the debt ceiling~! So, when Bam starts droning on about the pending disaster, would someone please remind him "You didn't do that, but you sure signed it!"
    29 Nov 2012, 06:29 PM Reply Like
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    Raising taxes on top 2% will grow the ecomony and add millions of new jobs. Few people have the vision of President Obama.
    29 Nov 2012, 06:33 PM Reply Like
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    yawn. More class warfare from Terry and Obama.

    The only way to fix the deficit is for everyone's taxes to go up. Bring on the fiscal cliff baby!
    30 Nov 2012, 10:14 AM Reply Like
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    chop:

    Deficits are NEVER fixed by giving Congress more money to spend, any more the alcoholism is fixed by givining a wino an extra bottle. They'll spend all that and leverage spening up even more in the process.

    Absent actual spending cuts, it's better to have deficits with more money remaining in private hands than deficits with less money remaining in private hands. Remember, the Government produces nothing.
    30 Nov 2012, 10:35 AM Reply Like
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    Fiscal cliff does both though. I wouldn't mind put some revenue on the table with taxes if we get a lot more spending cuts to go with it.
    30 Nov 2012, 10:42 AM Reply Like
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    Rah! Rah! Terry. We haven't added any new jobs in the last 4 years - and probably won't for at least the next 2-4 (potentially longer). Well actually we have added 6 for each 100 new people entering the population.
    29 Nov 2012, 06:44 PM Reply Like
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    The big problem in the country is that it is full of ignorant people like Terry that have no clue about what is going on. Unfortunately, since they outnumber the rest of us, I can only see more gloom and doom ahead.
    30 Nov 2012, 03:02 AM Reply Like
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    No hope. I say let the Sequestration begin. I really hope that they all just stop negotiating and let this thing get going at year end.

    It may be the best and fairest solution possible.
    30 Nov 2012, 08:13 AM Reply Like
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    No worries I'm sure everything will be fine. Just print more money that fixes everything.
    30 Nov 2012, 08:13 AM Reply Like
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    I am not sure why markets get buoyant when there are new rumors of agreement on the fiscal cliff. Any agreement will involve higher taxes and spending cuts: both are killer of economic activity and negative for stock markets. I suspect that after the initial optimism after the inevitable agreement in the 11th hour is reached, the markets will stall.
    30 Nov 2012, 09:35 AM Reply Like
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