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[FearfulJesuit]

Unfortunately, the election is as far away as possible, and for a reason. The electorate will have forgotten about this come 2014.

[misko27]

Unfortunately, the election is as far away as possible, and for a reason. The electorate will have forgotten about this come 2014.

Not if the dems kep it alive, and more importantly, if the economy tanks, people will remember who exactly did it.
 
As long as the dems learned their mistakes.

[Moghjubar]

Fiscal cliff diving, weee!

Also, now suggesting topic title descriptor be changed to: Its Never Over.

[Mego]

Dallas? That is not the city that has "keep Austin weird" as its motto.

Blame the Dallas suburbs. They're so conservative it hurts. There were people actually supporting Santorum here.

As a result, my vote in the election was mostly wasted.

[penguinofhonor]

Dallas? That is not the city that has "keep Austin weird" as its motto.

Do all liberal cities in conservative states have this motto? Louisville has it all over the place.

[Mego]

Dallas? That is not the city that has "keep Austin weird" as its motto.

Do all liberal cities in conservative states have this motto? Louisville has it all over the place.

See above. Dallas doesn't tout this motto. And, as far as I know, Austin started the motto. History.

College Station, in response, has started the motto "Keep College Station Normal". San Antonio jumped on the bandwagon and has "Keep San Antonio Lame", a poke at how the city is somewhat of a tourist trap.

[RedKing]

Happy Fiscal Cliff Day! Any bets on whether or not some kind of halfassed compromise gets pulled out at the 11th hour?

[tryrar]

With the way the GOP is stonewalling like the Chin Dynasty against the Mongols(or something to that effect)?  Haha no

[RedKing]

With the way the GOP is stonewalling like the Chin Dynasty against the Mongols(or something to that effect)?  Haha no

You know, the Mongols DID eventually conquer China.

There's buzz that a lot of the substantive disagreements have either been settled or put aside for now, and it's just coming down to haggling over the numbers. Interesting part would be if the Senate manages to hash out some kind of ugly compromise, sends it to the House, and then enough Tea Party types reject it. Might be the last gasp of the Tea Party if they're pretty much single-handedly the ones that send us over the cliff.

[PTTG??]

The following parable has no bearing on the current political situation at all.

[FearfulJesuit]

By the way, the cliff doesn't have any effect on the debt, right? So a deal fails to go through, China won't get pissed off?

[Mephansteras]

By the way, the cliff doesn't have any effect on the debt, right? So a deal fails to go through, China won't get pissed off?

Actually, the cliff would result in a large repayment of America's debt. The 'Cliff' represents a huge set of tax cuts and spending programs that would expire, drastically increasing the amount of money available to pay off the deficit.

[FearfulJesuit]

Ladies and gentlemen, your Congress at (non-)work!

[mainiac]

By the way, the cliff doesn't have any effect on the debt, right? So a deal fails to go through, China won't get pissed off?

China doesn't buy treasury notes out of the kindness of their hearts, they buy them to affect the exchange rate.

It looks like there is going to be a fiscal cliff deal by January 3rd that basically erases the entire sequester and extends most of the tax cuts (rates revert to Clinton on personal income above $400k and capital tax rates go from 15% to 20%.)  Current spending and tax levels are extended for five years for most stuff but only 1 year for unemployment insurance (a pity since that is the most efficient stimulus).

If my read of the situation is correct then my hopeful prediction from a few weeks ago seems correct.  Basically congress erased the sequester fully without any austerity.  Economically that's good news.  Without austerity dragging us down the economic indicators for 2013 are quite positive.  2013 should be the year that the real recovery starts.

I'm not too worried about the deficit or inequality implications.  To solve the deficit long term we want to get back to full employment so cuts right now are mostly (but not universally) unproductive long term.  And if the economy does well for the next 4 years we can look forward to the next democratic president having a mandate to finally tackle inequality seeing as the economy will have been recovered by then.

Of course all of this is dependent on what happens with the debt ceiling.  If Obama stands firm on his promise to not negotiate and demand that the republicans do their goddamn job without a ransom then he is a strategic genius.  If he caves and gives in to their hostage taking this deal suddenly looks pretty bad.

[misko27]

The Fiscal cliff is the equivalent of cutting ourselves to pour a cup, then selling our blood to the chinese while they look on in horror, and STILL not having enough to be debt-free.