Should we go over the fiscal cliff?

[Odin]

Peter Schiff says yes, since deficits are worse in his mind than tax increases.

Wondering what people here think, and be realistic. Would the best option at this point be for Congress not to come to a deal, and for us to go over the fiscal cliff since? IMO yes, because whatever "solution" the Congress comes up with will be worse in the long run than the fiscal cliff.

Thoughts?

[ghengis86]

We've already gone over the cliff; the question is how hard the splat will be.

[Zippyjuan]

If the goal is reducing the deficit, we know that the reductions from going over the cliff will be greater than those they might agree on to try to avoid it (that is the idea- to reduce the increases in taxes and reduce the cuts in spending). But even going "over the cliff" will still leave a very long ways to go (and they don't really want to go there- would cost them too many votes).

[Brian4Liberty]

They will go over the cliff. They will raise taxes, and then they will ignore the spending cuts. Count on it.

Think that the purging of the true fiscal conservatives from Committees is just a coincidence?

[Odin]

If the goal is reducing the deficit, we know that the reductions from going over the cliff will be greater than those they might agree on to try to avoid it (that is the idea- to reduce the increases in taxes and reduce the cuts in spending). But even going "over the cliff" will still leave a very long ways to go (and they don't really want to go there- would cost them too many votes).

True but the weirdly positive effect of going over the cliff is that the economy will drop back into recession and the stock market will probably plunge, which might buy the dollar some more time. We might also see the price of oil, food, and housing drop which will be good for most of us.

In regards to ghengis's point, I would say we haven't gone over the big cliff yet, so far we've gone down a modest, bumpy incline, and the real cliff looms in front of us. The "fiscal cliff" is more like a speed bump that might slow us down some before we go over the real cliff, and importantly buy us some time. So going over the cliff seems like the best choice to me.

[Carson]

We went over the edge when we lost all sense of reason and went off of the gold standard.

Eventually a criminal activity like the counterfeiting, and for that matter, all of the criminal activity it has spawned will catch up with us.