With just 53 days until the so-called 'fiscal cliff' goes into affect, Christine Romans is looking at three potential scenarios for how Congress could deal with it.
“We’re getting very close to it,” Romans says, “and policymakers are just starting again to lay out kind of the framework for how they’re gonna discuss it.”
The scenarios for resolving the issue include extending current policy for six months, falling off the fiscal cliff, and a grand bargain on deficit reduction. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office breaks down some of the bargain scenarios, including raising taxes on the rich.
“The CBO said just raising taxes on the rich…wouldn’t really hurt the economy all that much,” Romans reports. “That would seem to suggest that democrats are on the right track.” Plus, a new op-ed from Paul Krugman in "The New York Times" this morning argues that Obama should let the economy dive off the fiscal cliff.
“U.S. stock futures are down this morning,” in light of all this. “Early morning market watchers” are saying “they need to see more signs of progress on the fiscal cliff,” Romans says. “That’s why stocks are down.”