If no budget deal is reached between Congress and President Barack Obama by the end of the year, the United
States will face what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke described as
"a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases."
We know the seriousness of this
situation because no news program goes more than 10 minutes without telling us
the seriousness of the situation.
The closest historical precedence
for anything like the "fiscal cliff" is found in the 1984 movie,
"Ghostbusters" -- when the ghostbusters inform the mayor of New York
that the city is threatened by a disaster of biblical proportions:
Mayor: What do you mean,
"biblical"?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is
Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone
coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of
darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes . . .
Winston Zeddemore: The dead
rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human
sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
The news media have told us that
the failure to avoid the fiscal cliff will result in--and make no mistake about
it--a serious situation. They've reported that there will be an immediate tax
increase on most earners and massive cuts to government programs, the defense
budget, and Medicare.
But this is just the stuff
they're telling us. Could it mean the end of the world? It might just be worse
than that.
Here is a partial list of what
will happen if Congress and the president don't agree to a budget deal before
January 1, 2013.
-- The United States will convert
to the metric system.
-- Replacement refs will return
to the National Football League.
-- Congress will repeal the laws
of gravity, leaving thousands of other bills up in the air.
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