Op-ed published in Today, Jan. 4, 2013
US President Barack Obama may have obtained a fiscal deal that he could live with, but his administration must now begin to prepare itself for ‘March Madness’ – the debate over the debt ceiling. Photo: Reuters Copyright © MediaCorp Press Ltd
By Tom Benner
The United States fiscal cliff – an end-of-year deadline for automatic federal tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts, set by leaders frustrated by their own inability to fix America’s budget problems – has been averted.
That is good news in the short term, because the fiscal cliff plan threatened to push the country back into recession. The trouble is, not much really got solved.
There are several ways of looking at the fiscal cliff deal that passed this week.
From a policy perspective, all the big issues were left for another day. There is no agreement on raising the debt ceiling, heading off the threat of a government shutdown and reaching long-term debt stabilisation. Continue reading …
Tom Benner Reports 
Excellent commentary.