Carolyn Kaster/AP
House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama looked grim at fiscal cliff talks in November. Prospects of a disaster-averting deal don't look any better now.
In just five days, governed by uncompromising partisans, the United States may well hurtle over the fiscal cliff and into an economic abyss of higher taxes for virtually all working Americans — including you, if you earn a paycheck.
At this late date, there is only a minuscule chance that President Obama and congressional Republicans can strike a deal that averts all the horrors they've scheduled for Jan. 1. Perhaps they'll take care of some; perhaps not. Either way, the performance is disgraceful.
All the more distressing, they've been struggling fruitlessly over measures that would represent just first steps toward long-term economic health.
Obama is set to arrive in Washington on Thursday after cutting short his family vacation in Hawaii. The Senate was ambling back to town, while House Republicans were told to expect 48 hours' notice on a call to action. Hey, what's the rush?
Although you can go blue in the face assigning blame, it's clear that hard-line House Republicans are the most irresponsible of all the players.
In a stunning rebuke to their own leader, Speaker John Boehner, by the dozens they backed away from a GOP-devised plan to do the bare minimum: raise marginal tax rates to 39.6% only for those making more than $1 million annually.
Boehner, who'd planned to pass his Plan B as a fallback in the event a larger deal combining substantial tax hikes and serious spending cuts could not be struck, had to cancel the vote. "We had a number of our members who just really didn't want to be perceived as having raised taxes," he said.
Every responsible economist and political leader in America understands that to dig out of $15 trillion in debt, the country needs to both generate more revenue and slash spending.
Meaning: raise taxes, starting with those who can most afford it, and trim outlays, starting with reductions in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, where most of the spending is.
For weeks, Obama and Boehner had traded proposals, inching closer to a sane approach that does a hard thing or two. Obama's spending cuts were not enough — but at least he was playing ball. Ditto Boehner on the revenue side.
It looked like there might be hope until the GOP fringe refused to countenance a penny tax hike on a single American. At the same time, the Republicans refused to realistically spell out the spending cuts they have so fervently called for.
Here's some of what will happen Jan. 1, barring movement in Washington. The Bush-era tax rates will expire, forcing up the bills for everyone, and the government will start cutting $500 billion in spending. Combine sharply higher taxes and markedly slashed expenditures, and you aim for a recession and a criminal jump in unemployment.
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