In less than 24 hours after Obama’s win on Tuesday, the attention of the entire United States turned almost immediately towards what has been dubbed “the fiscal cliff”. What is the fiscal cliff exactly? Back in 2011 the Democrats and Republicans couldn’t figure out how to deal with the deficit so they implemented the Budget Control Act which would be activated on January 1, 2013 — an Act which includes huge tax increases (which the Republicans hate) and massive spending cuts (which the Democrats hate). The parties agreed this nightmare scenario would provide a kick in the butt to each of the parties and force them to figure something out before the deadline arrived. Well, this plan has backfired big-time and it looks as if America will indeed be going off this cliff, which would throw the U.S. economy instantly back into recession and stalled growth. You can read the full explanation HERE.
So how did it get to this? The art of negotiating has been at the center of politics in Washington since the beginning, with each side bending slightly for the greater good of the country. But that all stopped when a man named Grover Norquist somehow managed to convince nearly every single Republican in power to sign a pledge promising never to increase taxes. Anyone who refused to sign the pledge would be all but guaranteed to lose in whatever election they ran in — either at a federal or a local level — because Norquist’s team is so big and so influential they can wipe out the electability of anyone in their bad books.
So long as Norquist is around, the ability for Washington to come to a balanced compromise on this fiscal cliff is seriously compromised. 60 Minutes recently profiled this psycho in late August, and you can watch it in full below. Clearly this is a man who is either in desperate need of getting laid, or had a tragic childhood. Or quite possibly both.
