“Stock futures were rising Monday morning ahead of the final day for legislators in Washington to avoid tax hikes and deep across-the-board spending cuts that would go into effect at midnight if Congress can’t reach a temporary deal,” Joe Deaux reports for TheStreet. “Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.23%, or 29 points, at 12,806. Futures for the S&P 500 were adding 0.40%, or 5.50 points, to 1390. Nasdaq futures were gaining 0.04%, or 1 point, with a fair value of 2587.”
“Congress failed to reach a deal over weekend as Democrats and Republicans went back and forth on where they should set a threshold of income for individuals and families,” Deaux reports. “Democrats had hoped to increase taxes on those individuals who had earned more than $360,000 each year and families with incomes of $450,000, but Senate Republicans suggested the individual tax hikes go to those earning $450,000 or more and on couples making a yearly amount of $550,000.”
Deaux reports, “‘There’s still significant distance between the two sides, but negotiations continue,’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Sunday night.”
Read more in the full article here.
The cliff is inevitable
It is funny that if we don’t tax the 1% we will go over the Fiscal Cliff. I think that the added revenue will run the government for about 8 days. Doesn’t sound like much of a cliff to me – maybe a speed bump. But going over a Fiscal Speed Bump doesn’t sound terrifying enough for the media to report on.
The World is laughing at us. Congress is a joke.
What would they do in a real crisis. And it is coming. Harry Reid and Mitch McConoll are only interested in themselves. We have no Statesmen in Washington. Only a bunch of sorry ass Lawers that have never built anything. We are in a sad state of affairs. And what’s worse
there are very few up and rising stars.
The cliff part isn’t the added tax revenue this the social program spending cuts that will automatically happen. The Tax increase is just a drop in the ocean.
When unemployment extensions are automatically ended and welfare spending is cut by 70% and social security benefits are rolled back to about where they were in 2000. This will put the poor and elderly up in arms, currently these programs are funded by browed money. if no deal is reached they end and putting the funding back in place would be very hard. The government will also need to put tens of thousands of works on unpaid leave and may end up laying off most of them. Then there is the effect of government contract works that will go unpaid until the mess can be sorted out to pay them, this could take more than a year.
It’s is not about a tax increase on the 1%… (it’s about the government’s budget or lack there of)… The tax increase is a smoke screen to the billions in wasteful and abusive government spending… The fiscal cliff if not avoided would in reality would be a great thing for most tax payers because it forces the balanced budget. In the short term it would take a bite out of the economy and might cause some unrest in the poor that relies on welfare and food stamps for there living. A prolonged forced balanced Federal budget would in the end benefit the economy and the country.