Email sent out today at my Wife's work...

There's certainly a lot of things that people will be surprised about next year.  Even if they "fix" the fiscal cliff there will be a lot of thing that come out of Obamacare that people won't like.

I was aware of this...even before the election.  Something else that is going to hit me to the tune of about $500 next year is the deduction for my medical flex spending.  I use the max contribution of 5K per year, even with having good insurance (kids with braces).  Anyway, it will be half of that next year. This is to help pay for obamacare.

But he told us... Forward!

I know if they let the Bush tax cuts expire it will cost me thousands.  I've got three kids and just the child tax credit alone is $1500 more out of my pocket. (there goes my Assault Rifle) 

It's probalby best to let this expire.  That one never made any sense to me.

I believe they nailed you for it at the end of the year anyway.

I don't see the "fiscal cliff" as a Democrat or Republican thing.  I see it as an amazing example of US politicians unwilling to take any action or put forth a vote that they think will hurt their chances for reelection.

Congresspeople are simply too afraid to do the tough thing, the right thing, for fear of getting voted out.  They made promisses and pledges that lock them into a position and are too afraid to budge from them.  The "fiscal cliff" was supposed to be a consequence so horrible, it would FORCE Congress and the President to some to an agreement.  Force them to budge.  How cowardly can you be when you're looking over the edge and you're STILL too afraid to budge because it might cost you your job?

536 people.  435 House Members, 100 Senators, and 1 President.  It's crunch time.  Pragmatic.  Give and take.  Bargain.  Negotiate.  No one wins and no one loses.  Do whatchya gotta do.  I don't care about the so-called "pros" of going over the cliff (higher revenues through taxes, being able to vote for a tax cut in 2013, making a dent in the deficit through a sudden and monster cut to defense, medicare, medicaid, etc.)  The resulting global retraction and recession will be brutal!  Sure it gets you lower, but you're literally doing it by falling off of a cliff.  Not much control in that.

It's this concept of "winnign" and "losing".  That one party has to win and one has to lose.  Well in this case, there is NO winner!  Cutting the deficit means making hard choices.  Everyone loses.  The only question is how much both sides take in the loss.

536 people.  If the threat of a "fiscal cliff" isn't enough to get them to do their jobs.....  Should these people have these jobs at all?  Both Democrats and Republicans?  Do we want cowards running our country?

I fail to see the big deal. It was a measure that if Congress would not do anything, the bill would. 20% across the board... that's not bad. All they did was kick the can down the road and here it is. Bottom line is all these things are too near and dear to those being elected next cycle. There will most certainly be action.

I don't even remember the cut... but then again I don't pay SS. I have one of those outrageous defined benefit plans since I work for a municipality. I pay 9%, and my employer pays 12%. At 63 after 25 years I will get 62%. Crazy I know... but at least we actually fund it.

SS is in the hole, and our elected officials decided what was best was to cut funding by a third, so you can get 2% back in your pocket. Genius.

I still stand by my original prediction that by the end of December they will pass a resolution to extend the fiscal cliff to 2013 with nothing getting done.

That puts it too close to mid term elections. They need these two years for people to forget.

Sadly, this is a very real possibility and I would bet money that you're right.  The problem with Congress is that when you don't like the rules of the game, simply change the rules.

How does this work exactly (I don't actualy know)? They are writing IOU's left and right. I know some funds are earmarked directly like SS tax. Isn't everything in the general fund just paid out of one account? I.e. If they increase revenues by $200B from the Bush cuts expiring, doesn't this just go straight into the general fund and they have to issue less IOU's?

Fixed it for them.  The gub-mint put a yoke on our children to pay for a stimulus.  Not a fan.   End this crap now.

And while we're at it, we need to reform SS from defined benefit to defined contribution.   I don't even know if it can be done, but we ought to be looking at it.  There are too many assumptions built into the current SSI scheme for it to continue to be solvent.   Current contribution rates are almost 13% of wages.  You CAN retire comfortably on that.  And yet, it's still a question mark for many Americans.  It's crap.

I'll see your balanced budget amendment, and raise you a cap on spending to a determined percentage of GDP.

I'm all in with term limits...

Terms limits are a double edged sword.  There are members of both parties that many people would like to see go and frankly need to go.  However, if either team gets a good guy in who truly does what he's supposed to do and represents the people then he gets thrown out as well after a couple terms and some schlep gets voted in who may be worse.

I know in Nebraska they put in term limits of two four year terms for state legislatures and everyone was all excited because of the old sticks in the mud that needed to go.  Then all of a sudden all the good senators got swept out too and they just had a new ballot measure last week to change it from 2 to 3 terms by the same people who pushed in the term limits in the first place.