Bloomberg On FISCAL CLIFF: " Nothing's Gonna Happen On January 2 "

[Segami]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg this morning said that all the talk of a "fiscal cliff" is little more than a media marketing gimmick.



"Nothing's gonna happen on January 2," he said during his regular Friday morning appearance on the John Gambling radio show. "The stock market may react poorly. I'm not even sure of that. But there's no cliff. This is just something that plays well on your radio show and in the newspapers."



President Barack Obama and the Republican House don't appear to be any closer to an agreement on how to avoid the huge spending cuts and tax increases that will, absent a compromise, kick in at the start of the year. Bloomberg today noted that it will take a while for those spending cuts and tax increases to be felt (hence his argument that the "cliff" is more of a slope), but that the danger is real, particularly in the event the federal government reduces charitable contribution and state and local tax deductions.



"If they were to reduce the deductability of state and local taxes, a place like New York would be very severely hurt," said Bloomberg.
(According to Charles Lane in the Washington Post, "Two states, California and New York, reaped almost 30 percent of the deduction’s value in 2009.&quot "The other thing is, if they were to eliminate or reduce the ability to deduct charitable contributions," Bloomberg continued. "The federal government and state governments are defunding higher education and even regular education throughout this country. It's a disaster. But it would be so much worse if they couldn't at least turn to private sector people and say, 'Hey, help us here.'"



http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/11/6726390/bloomberg-fiscal-cliff-ratings-booster-nothings-gonna-happen-januar

[Atman]

1. Well, he's kinda right.

On January 2, we lose the paycheck FICA tax break. Nothing else changes. There is no "cliff."

[Segami]

2. Thats far from being a Doom & Gloom 'Cliff'. Fear,...effective control trigger!

[BlueStreak]

3. Exactly. And the corollary is that Obama doesn't have much real leverage

Last edited Fri Nov 30, 2012, 06:37 PM - Edit history (1)

But most of the Republicans are spooked big time. We'll see if Obama can turn this into something.

[pnwmom]

12. He has the leverage of all the tax rates going up without having to sign a single bill.

That's real leverage.

[BlueStreak]

13. Only if the GOP gives a shit about the middle class

Frankly it is good policy to get rid of all the Bush tax cuts. The idea of making even part of them permanent is completely irresponsible. But that's where we are. The right economic policy would be to end the upper income cuts now and end the others based on triggers (e.g. end half the cuts when we hit 6% unemployment and end the rest of them when we hit 5%.)

Really the GOP is only concerned about how their billionaire funders do, and they are concerned about the general principle of making taxes so low that we have to end important social programs. They don't give a shit about the average American per se.

Please note that our government costs us about 22% of GDP, which is near the 60-year low, and is HALF the size of Canada's or the government of many European countries. Our government is already small enough.

And we are only collecting 16% of GDP. We need to collect at least 20% of GDP.

So really, when Obama says "No matter what, I will force you to give up on: a) your pledge to Grover, and b) the tax goodies for the billionaires that fund you" there just isn't much leverage left after that.

The best thing to do is nothing at all. Let the sequester cuts happen. Its impact on the Pentagon is not a huge deal. Let all the Bush cuts expire. Obama is in a position to blame the higher 2013 taxes on the GOP, and that is when he will have REAL leverage. If Obama can make that stick, then that is a huge political problem for the GOP. But they aren't feeling that now and won't feel in until we let everything expire.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. He is right.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Reminds me of Y2K,

and how life in this planet would cease to exist as we know it.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Segami]

6. Bingo! LOL,...yes, I remember the Y2K fire & brimstone fear mongering. It came and went.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. I succumbed to it,

dropped $1,000 on a 5500 watt generator for the home, still sits in the shop and hasn't even been run for 8 hours since then.

Every time I see it, I swear it's laughing at me.

[Avalux]

7. He's exactly right. The 'cliff' was concocted to scare people,

and give the media something to become obsessed over. Stupid.

[Myrina]

8. He's being too logical and tolerable lately

What's Mayor Mike up to?

[JDPriestly]

10. They should do away with any deductions on more than

one house as well as on hobbies like Ann's horse.

[Faryn Balyncd]

11. What will it take to stop corporate media (including NPR) from echoing the false "cliff" meme?

[Faryn Balyncd]

14. kick