Fiscal cliff

The fiscal cliff (as in "jumping off the fiscal cliff") is a recurring nightmare scenario in which the full faith and credit of the United States — the backbone of the global financial system — is literally held hostage by a group of political ideologues.Meet the 32 Republicans Who Caused the Government Shutdown, The Atlantic (And, if they don't get their way, are perfectly willing to blow off $24 billion in the course of two weeks.U.S. shutdown cost the economy in 4 ways, CBC)
At the heart of this now-annual episode is the United States debt ceiling, the legally-mandated upper limit on what the American government can borrow in order to pay its bills. For years, raising the debt ceiling was a mundane legislative actGuess who raised the debt ceiling 17 times?, Washington PostWilling to deny this? that drew no particular political attention. But, as neoconservative voices and (later) the Tea Party/Austrian school economics gained increasing presence, the annual need to borrow money to meet obligations has become a partisan battleground with huge stakes: if the United States does not pay its bills, the bonds it issues will no longer be an absolutely guaranteed, rock-solid investment. The ensuing uncertainty would have... negative effects on the world economy.It's the equivalent of giving the finger to your mortgage on a macroeconomic scale. (And the assurance that China would be the single global superpower for much of the 21st century.) Some explanation from the Treasury Department.
==How this happened==
In 2007, the USA fell into the worst economic collapse in 70+ years, forcing President George W. Bush and his successor, Barack Obama, to engage in deficit spending unseen since FDR to ensure that the situation would be just that — a two-year recession.US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions, National Bureau of Economic Research
However, the American conservative establishment (which awoke from the hangover of tax cuts, deregulation and military spending that made the American economy so vulnerable in the first placeReflections on the Causes and Consequences of the Debt Crisis of 2008, University of Wisconsin-Madison) noticed that when the US debt reached 100% of GDP for the first time since the 1930s, they had to act to prevent their notion of small government from disappearing."The problem Republicans are having right now is an outgrowth of a longer-term issue they've had ever since the 2008 elections: the GOP does not really have much of a policy agenda. For the past five years, the party has been defined almost entirely by everything it is against. Mostly, it is against Barack Obama and whatever he is for. And here, Mr. Obama's tendency to play the reasonable moderate sometimes becomes a problem." In 2010, a bipartisan "idea" was made to create a "fiscal cliff" — if a debt-reduction strategy of revenue increases and spending cuts were not made by January 1, 2013, then an even larger one would be implemented, risking a return to recession. (Sound familiar?)
Republicans were adamant to avoid any increase in taxes and cuts to the military; they began whining, to which Obama replied with a willingness to cut a new deal. Throughout December 2012, Obama seemed again willing to slash Medicare and Social Security as part of a "Grand Bargain" budget deal in return for modest tax increases, showing he didn't learn anything from the 2010 midterm massacre where Republicans successfully campaigned against entitlement reforms Obama offered as a compromise in previous negotiations.
Although the final deal to avert this fiscal cliff eventually did not contain any cuts to entitlement programs, Obama gave away substantial revenue savings and a return to Clinton-era tax levels, and seemed to trade away leverage for another debt ceiling fight that was coming up in October 2013. Obama initially sought revenue increases up to $1.6 trillion, Republicans offered revenue increases of $800 billion, and the final deal went even lower than that ($600 billion). Over and over Obama promised not to keep the low tax rates for people earning more than $250,000. Not only did he cave on this, but the retention of at least 85 per cent of the Bush tax cuts led some observers to re-brand the deal, officially named American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, as the "Obama tax cuts."In typical modesty, the American business community decried the deal that handed them billions in taxpayer-funded gifts because it represented a missed chance. Business leaders specified that "serious tax and entitlement reform" (read: more tax cuts) was not achieved and they pledged to lobby D.C. in the coming months to fulfil the wishes of the Masters of the Universe. 
===October 2013===
After five years in office, Obama finally grew some balls.Deal with it. 
On October 16, the House of Representatives finally caved after a two-week government shutdown and passed the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2014, which resumed federal funding and suspended the debt ceiling until February. Meet us back then.
===Beginning of the end?===
On February 11, 2014, over a month after the US Senate passed a budget that would flush most of the 2013 sequestration,Obama signs bipartisan budget deal, annual defense bill, Reuters the Orange Overlord (no not that one) quietly capitulated after three years of axe-waving, allowing a clean debt ceiling raise lasting until March 2015.The Debt Ceiling is Now Pointless, The New York Times Nonetheless, after everything that had transpired, only 12% of the entire House GOP caucus were willing to stomach reality with him.The 199-member Hall of Shame can be found here.
==Various quotes by conservatives on defaulting on $17 trillion==
==A quote by Republicans on defaulting on $17 trillion, 150+ years ago==
==See also==
*Obamacare
*Chinese-owned US debt
*Greece-baiting
*Path to Prosperity
*Iron law of institutions
*Innumeracy - Because America's fear of big numbers is screwing us all.
==External links==
*The Debt Limit Explained, CGPGrey
*Facing Facts on Fiscal Cliff, FactCheck
*Why Does Congress Suck? (Hint: the answer starts with a "g.")
*Shutdown: A fight with no room for compromise, Reuters
*Excuses, Excuses, Excuses, The New York Times
*The Shutdown Prophet, New York Magazine
*Why is comparing sovereign debt to household debt wrong? (No, Heritage Foundation, the government is not a gold-plated mansion.)
*This Baby Bargains Like The Tea Party 
*"You shut down my government because I wouldn't trade you my Charizard?"
*We hope you had the time of your life.
==Sources==
*Lawrence Rosenthal (2013). "The Tea Party, the government shutdown, and Obamacare." The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, University of Oxford.
==References==
Category:Conservative deceit
Category:Financial crisis of 2007 to 2009
Category:Financial fraud
Category:Government incompetence
Category:Neologisms
Category:United States politics