What is the fiscal cliff? Most politicians and pundits refer to
the fiscal cliff as meaning major tax increases combined with
across the board spending cuts that our government has thrust
upon us. The real "fiscal cliff" is the Mt. Everest of debt that
is right in front of us. Both Republicans and Democrats are
bickering over pennies when they should be negotiating dollars.
Let's assume that President Obama gets everything he wants in
tax increases and that Speaker Boehner gets all his proposed
spending cuts, where would that leave us? We are projected to
incur approximately $1.2 trillion dollars more debt each year
for the next several years. At current growth rates, Obama's new
taxes, ($1.6 trillion over 10 years), will net us $0.16 trillion
per year and Speaker Boehner's cuts will net us $0.14 trillion
per year in reduced spending or a net of $0.3 trillion per year.
These proposed "fiscal cliff" remedies leaves us incurring
roughly $900 billion per year of new debt. At George W. Bush's
worst, he was incurr