As the Pandemic Drags On, Americans Struggle for New Balance on the Fiscal Cliff
As the Pandemic Drags On, Americans Struggle for New Balance on the Fiscal Cliff
The battle over the fiscal cliff has just begun
If we’re honest about it, this is the least interesting economic issue that has ever faced the United States Congress. The fact that America has not just not gone over the cliff yet, but has been negotiating with itself, as well, is neither here nor there. Most people I speak with find Washington’s lack of interest in addressing the fiscal cliff depressing, and they will accept this as a normal reality of life in the United States.
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No one would complain if our government didn’t try to figure out how to avoid a second recession, or a double dip, as a result of a temporary blip in demand for our services and industries, or even the first recession, if we were to get a virus as a result of a government shutdown. But this is different. Instead of worrying about a hypothetical event that could happen, we’re worrying about a very real event (a pandemic) happening right now. And if we don’t take care of this right now, it is likely that no one will take care of it for decades.
So the important question is this: Is it right for this country to try and address this issue before all of the facts are in? And is it right to delay facing this problem until we have to?
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The answer is complicated and nuanced. But in a nutshell, we need to stop playing games with our economy and come up with a plan for how you would address the fiscal cliff without risking a double dip. And that plan needs to fix our economy, which is not just a simple question of how to deal with the current economic crisis, it is a much more complicated question of how you get a society to address any problem while retaining and developing the principles of freedom and liberty that made us the successful nation we are today.
