The Washington Consensus Right Now Is That The U.S. Is Going Off The Fiscal Cliff

Fiscal Cliff Deal Increasingly Unlikely -- Politico

Nearly all the major players in the fiscal cliff negotiations are starting to agree on one thing: A deal is virtually impossible before the New Year.

Unlike the bank bailout in 2008, the tax deal in 2010 and the debt ceiling in 2011, the Senate almost certainly won’t swoop in and help sidestep a potential economic calamity, senior officials in both parties predicted on Wednesday.

With the country teetering on this fiscal cliff of deep spending cuts and sharp tax hikes, the philosophical differences, the shortened timetable and the political dynamics appear to be insurmountable hurdles for a bipartisan deal by New Year’s Day.

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My Comment: The U.S. Senate has not passed a budget for the past 3+ years .... I doubt that they are going to be successful in the next 3 days. Sequestration appears to now be inevitable .... and for the Pentagon/defense budget/defense contractors who need to plan months (if not years) for their programs/procurements/and policy goals .... everything that has been done in the past few years is now on the verge of being thrown out of the window in the next few days.

Who am I to blame for this debacle .... I cannot blame the President or the Democrats for this mess .... I know what they are and what they want (i.e. a smaller defense budget, more taxes, more entitlements, a greater role for government, etc.) .... the group that I am blaming are the Republicans. They signed up to sequestration because they believed that the Democrats would compromise on their principles .... they are now learning that they will not. The question that is now being asked is .... will the Republicans compromise on theirs .... I believe that they will .... but only in the next month or two before the impact of sequestration really starts to hit the economy and the pocketbooks of American taxpayers.

And the sad part of this debacle is that none of the plans offer any real solutions to arresting America's addiction to debt and deficit financing .... thereby guaranteeing the next crisis (and solutions) will be even worse.