good. i will add to your points for stoking the debate. and use relevant comparisons to support arguments. most important is to learn from others' mistakes and not repeat it in sg.
in all fairness, i wish the fiscal cliff goes right thru' and is not "avoided" by the useless congress and clueless executive branch. in the long term, it's good for the country. so what if it rankles wall street and the stock market for the short term. all they're looking for is certainty. either way it swings, the market will eventually settle on certainty. it's uncertainty, indecisiveness and lack of agreement for a course of action to be taken by both parties that will rankle the market big time. what congress and the admin are actually doing with this stupid short term measure to avoid the cliff, which truly is only a scare tactic, is to kick the deficit can down the road. the cliff, if it goes thru', will do 2 critical things: (1) remove bush tax cuts, in effect reverting to pre-bush era taxes, which will increase gov revenue to combat the deficit, and (2) force drastic spending cuts on all gov entities, which will help reduce runaway gov expenses and create a budget surplus to address the growing deficit long term. the greatest burden on the future of america is creating this deficit monster that never seem to get smaller or at least stop growing. sooner or later, the growing deficit will destroy america inwardly. forget about having the most powerful armed forces in the world or in space when the gov with both parties involved cannot even cut spending. america is terminally sick with demagoguery.
the moment an elected gov starts pandering to the whimsical wishes of its voters to spend irresponsibly, demagogue style, on voters' welfare and goodwill, the country's future is kaput.
