Thursday, August 23, 2012

POLITICS - No-Governance on Budget Fix (review)

"Congress Will Decide to 'Punt Again' or Go 'Off Cliff' to Fix Budget Deficit" PBS Newshour 8/22/2012

Excerpt

SUMMARY: Should Congress fail to pass a balanced budget by the end of 2012, America could face serious repercussions. Judy Woodruff talks to the Congressional Budget Office's former director Alice Rivlin and Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's Maya MacGuineas about why budget reform talks need to shift to policy, not politics.

GWEN IFILL (Newshour): The nation could be pushed into a major recession next year if scheduled spending cuts and tax hikes kick in, in January.

The Congressional Budget Office said going over the so-called fiscal cliff could have dire consequences. Unless Congress acts, Americans can expect more than $300 billion in tax increases, as Bush era tax cuts expire and nearly $200 billion in across-the-board spending cuts Congress agreed to last year in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.

he CBO said those changes would reduce the deficit substantially, but the economy would also shrink by nearly 3 percent during the first half of the year and unemployment could top 9 percent.

We look more closely at this now, with Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and Alice Rivlin, a founding director of the CBO. She's now with the Brookings Institution.


Our nation thanks the no-governance Republicans for sticking to their stance to not consider the revenue-side of this issue.... NOT!

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