Make no mistake; the timing of the fiscal cliff was no accident. The confluence of spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013 was by design, carefully planned in an effort to force the government to address its rampant spending and borrowing.
Believe it or not, our government’s ability to borrow does have limits. When we last maxed out the ol’ credit card in August 2011, it caused a bit of a scramble, and Congress dealt with the problem as only this current Congress would: by increasing the limit and instructing a bipartisan super-committee to find a way to trim our deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next decade to reduce our reliance on borrowing. In the event the super-committee could not reach a resolution by November 2011, required spending cuts would take effect on January 1, 2013 to protect us from ourselves. The super-committee failed, resulting in the panicked debate that consumed Congress and dominated headlines for the past six weeks.
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