Yesterday (Sunday, December 9), President Obama met with Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) for their first one-on-one meeting since July 2011 to discuss how to avert the end-of-year fiscal cliff. They both issued statements that “the lines of communication remain open,” which may indicate the possibility for a solution to be worked out between the two parties, which have had considerable conflict over the budget in the past months.
However,
time is running short, if lawmakers are actually going to prevent a financial
crisis before the end of the year. While both sides do have written proposals on the table, they still need to be shaped into a solution that is acceptable to all involved.
What do you think? Will the government be able to sort out a solution to the fiscal cliff by 2013, even with the party differences that we've already seen?
7 comments:
Im optimistic that the government will solve this issue. I also think that the solution is going to be very similar to the one Obama is vehemently supporting now. As we learned in class today, after reelection, the POTUS gets a boost in support from the public that ultimately pushes Congress to support him and his ideas more. This boost in public support also gets the public on his side more in key issues. This is backed up by a new poll that says only 27% of Americans would blame the President if we failed to solve the fiscal cliff issue while 53% of those polled said they would blame the GOP(1). If Republicans fail to compromise on an issue like not extending Bush era ax cuts for the rich, they will ultimately take most of the blame, and I'm sure that the Democratic party will brand them as the party that let us fall of the fiscal cliff just to protect the rich. Republicans definitely recognize how dangerous receiving this blame would be. As the Economist notes, "every member of the House has to run again in two years, Barack Obama never has to run for anything again"(2). While the President has the public on his side and no fear of having to get reelected, congressional Republicans would be hurting their chances of reelection significantly as they are poised to take the blame if talks fail. Since the Democrats have made it clear that they are not willing to change much, I think that the GOP needs to either accept what the Democrats have proposed or prepare to take a big hit from the public.
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/12/04/republicans-losing-blame-game-on-fiscal-cliff/
2. http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/12/debt-ceiling
There is definitely a time shortage. However, I agree with Robert. This is one of the most promising bipartisan actions in recent years. Both parties (mainly Obama and Boehner) have gotten a substantial increase of public support from this announcement, which will hopefully influence the rest of Congress to try to hitch a ride on their public support bandwagon and be more compliant in the upcoming debates. Now, I don't want them to be so rushed or so happy-go-lucky that we end up with a bad solution. I'll admit that awaiting the fate of these negotiations is making me a little anxious. If you feel the same way, I recommend watching the SNL version of Obama's and Boehner's announcement.
While I understand that time is running short, there are a lot of reputations at stake here and I believe that in the end both parties will be able to pass something to help resolve the issue. When it came to raising the debt ceiling, even that issue was pushed close to the deadline before they finally ended up coming to the only reasonable conclusion. Not being able to pass a resolution could have serious economic repercussions that both parties need to avoid, so in light of that facet Republican and Democrats a like will have to find common ground on something.
Forgive me for being cynical, but I really do not believe this is a sign of bipartisan cooperation. No way. If you watch some interviews with John Boehner and other members of Congress, both sides have positions that they will not back down on. And so the squabbling continues, with each side refusing to back down. Honestly, I'm okay with going off the fiscal cliff. From what I've heard (I should clarify that I haven't researched it thoroughly), it doesn't sound like the end of the world if we went off the fiscal cliff; the cuts to our budget would be gradual, and some of them would be to the military, which I am in favor of.
I have to agree with Taylor. I honestly doubt that any sort of agreement will be reached. I think the GOP has the upperhand in the negotiations given that democrats are on the national stage right now and GOP members and supporters typically don't have money issues.
Though I understand Robert's point of view, I have to agree with Taylor, though it pains me to be a cynic on a pressing issue like this.
Time is running out. It doesn't look like Congress is going to do anything by January 1st, but I expect that they are on the right track. Even if we do not get a complete solution, it seems like something productive will happen in January. This won't be terribly harmful, as the tax increases and spending cuts will be in place for only a small portion of the year. These open lines of communication show that we are taking a step in the right direction.
Both sides know there is a lot at stake here--I'd be surprised if they dug in their heels forever.
Maybe taking a step in the right direction is all we can hope for.
Post a Comment