While Rome burns, Congress fiddles

Americans, nationwide, being busy with trying to keep our jobs and homes and families and lives intact are, mostly, going on with our lives, of course but in the meantime, our own US Congress declared an 8 week vacation for itself and vacated Washington.

Wonderful.

Forget that the nation is facing a "fiscal cliff" that will hit us January 1--of their making--if they don't come up with a budget. Forget that.

They're going to come back right after the November election and have precious little time to do the rather huge job of working together and compromising to make that budget agreement so huge cuts aren't imposed.

In the meantime, there's little media coverage, really.

This, thankfully, broke today:


If Congress Goes Over The Fiscal Cliff, Here's How You'll Get Hurt At Tax Time (Link at bottom).

From the article:

If Congressional gridlock sends the U.S. government tumbling over the fiscal cliff later this year, Americans could face an average tax hike of almost $3,500 in 2013. Nearly 9 of every 10 households would pay higher taxes. Every income group would see their taxes rise by at least 3.5 percent, but high-income households would suffer the biggest hit by far, according to a new Tax Policy Center analysis.

And that's just a small part of what will happen if Congress doesn't get back to work.

From Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, as reported from MISH'S Global Economic
Trend Analysis Blog:

"...the Congress and the Administration will soon have to address the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of sharply higher taxes and reduced spending that is set to happen at the beginning of the year. According to the Congressional Budget Office and virtually all other experts, if that were allowed to occur, it would likely throw the economy back into recession. The Congress and the Administration will also have to raise the debt ceiling to prevent the Treasury from defaulting on its obligations, an outcome that would have extremely negative consequences for the country for years to come. Achieving these fiscal goals would be even more difficult if monetary policy were not helping support the economic recovery."

So, Congress, get busy.

Please get back to work, get busy and start compromising.

Links: http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2012/10/01/if-congress-goes-over-the-fiscal-cliff-heres-how-youll-get-hurt-at-tax-time/

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/10/bernanke-begs-congress-to-address.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/01/162088383/report-if-congress-ignores-fiscal-cliff-most-americans-will-pay-more-taxes