US Nears Fiscal Disaster: ‘Washington Doing Nothing’

[Paslode]

Happy days are here again!

"People are never going to understand how critical this particular time in history is," said Erskine Bowles, the North Carolina businessman and co-chairman of President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. "We have $7.7 trillion worth of economic events that are going to hit America in the gut in December, and in Washington they're doing nothing about it."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49375694

[tonyz]

Yup,

Even if Romney makes it to the WH, the magnitude of the mess he'll be left to repair will truly be epic.

[cbtengr]

The optimist in me says that WHEN Romney makes it to the WH he can just blame the mess he inherits on the last administration, or would that be percieved as racist? Someone has to step up to the plate on our fiscal mess, they all have good intentions going in.

[sinjefe]

Originally Posted by cbtengr

The optimist in me says that WHEN Romney makes it to the WH he can just blame the mess he inherits on the last administration, or would that be percieved as racist? Someone has to step up to the plate on our fiscal mess, they all have good intentions going in.

Except that won't actually help anyone.

[XngZeRubicon]

I for one was particularly annoyed that neither moderator so far has brought this up in the debates. I was particularly annoyed that the last moderator thought abortion was a more important topic than this in the VP debate. The fear is very real in the financial and business community that the pols won't resolve this in time.

[Pericles]

Doing nothing is what Washington does best. Even more dangerous is when they start doing something, because of the probability of doing something that will improve the situation.

[MR2]

Maybe we should start a poll - Is the next financial crisis going to cost us less than $7 Trillion or less than $11 Trillion or higher?

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by MR2

Maybe we should start a poll - Is the next financial crisis going to cost us less than $7 Trillion or less than $11 Trillion or higher?

I might've gotten some zeroes missed but the recent $5 BILLION payment default by the USPS is, like, only 6-1/2 ten-thousandths of this forecast $7.7 TRILLION emotional event that's coming.

$7T is now obsolete as a measure of anything; go higher than $11T, assuming our good friend Sigaba can define 'financial crisis'. (Not calling you out Sig, but, hey, if anyone can....)

I don't necessarily believe they all necessarily arrive in DC with good intentions.
Is anyone willing to stop the printing of money?

[Gypsy]

This administration has operated without a budget for almost 4 years now. It's no wonder we're in the shit.

Too bad a moderator won't bring that up, so we can hear the big zero whine about how the other side has blocked his every attempt to pass a budget. Then the moderator could point out he had a democratic congress for his first 2 years in office...

Anyone else hearing the crickets?