It's the year 1999 and suddenly there is widespread panic that computers will not be able to cope with the numbers 2,0,0,0. Clocks, calendars, schedules, programme software, banks, wall street will just somehow implode (or that was my memory of it). Now why they didn't see this coming I'll never understand. But with all eyes on Sydney we waited for our digital world to collapse. It didn't. Computers being clever things clicked over to a new day and millennium quite effortlessly. It was a good night as I remember although my sparkly "2000" headband got lost :(
And so we have the 'fiscal cliff'. Plenty of time to predict and prevent and yet here comes the end of Year with panic, negotiations and dugged Politicians. My very simple understanding of the cliff is that a whole bunch of legislation including; the end of the Bush tax cut extensions, the beginning of ObamaCare and spending cuts to several key areas pertaining to the debt ceiling deal, were all coming together on a crash course to reduce the deficit by some $500 billion as the ball dropped on 2013. This reduction instead of being smiled upon was feared for its steep decline and the resulting recession and rise in unemployment. The percentage points that I've heard are not all that extreme, but of course add in a few clips of riots in Greece and the 'cliff' becomes much steeper.
I think what's interesting to me is why the last minute neogtiations? Why was this "messy, short-term deal" necessary? Well with all the Christmas and New Year festivities its easy to forget that we were deep in Election Politics only a few months ago. Gridlock was the Republican tool of choice, fighting the President at every turn in the belief he would soon be booted out. So a pre-emptive deal was off the table, but now more importantly my hope is that some Republicans at least want to get to work and represnt the districts that voted them in. ABC News' polls (sorry if that is a bad source I have 2 children and almost no internet) have 52% believe Obama did a good job with 45% in agreement with the deal. 51% disapproved of Boehner's role - Americans fed up perhaps of the delaying tatics of an unproductive House. Hope at last of future bi-partisanship and genuine progress?
Yet the cliff deal doesn't seem to achieve an awful lot. No immediate cuts for social security and medicare, and a 5 year extension on tax credits is a positive start but the fact that a threatened rise in taxes, however small and effecting relatively so few, is still seen as the bigger burden is surprising and frustrating. Why do taxes send such a chill down the US spine? For a nation made up of such generous individuals I find it strange that the general ethos is still against redistribution of wealth. Hmm.
I'm going to leave my comments on the ever huge defense budget and instead end with this. Obama brought ObamaCare safely through the election and has saved it again (yes ok CLASS was lost but I think was more using the situation to advantage rather than an actual loss - ??) he has taken points from Boehner and opened things up for the Senate to act instead of the House. What this all means I'm not sure but hopefully it'll be "politics as usual" instead of the stalemate that defined so much of Obama's first term.
N.B - The quotes are from other blogs, articles etc I'm sorry I didn't keep a better note. Blame the 7 month old who keeps interrupting me :)
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