Just What is the Fiscal Cliff?

via Council on Foreign Relations

Turn on the TV, log into the Internet; whatever one does, they cannot escape the constant stream of 'up to the minute' news about the fiscal cliff. International websites such as MSN even have a disclaimer above their headlines that reads the date and news, for example, December 27, 2012 as of 4:19 PM. This is almost a way of saying that it is the latest news available and is likely to change at any given moment.

The Fiscal Cliff is certainly out there making headlines, but I wonder if everyone actually knows what it is or if it even exists. As seen in the timeline above, the Council on Foreign Relations has laid out what they believe led to the fiscal cliff- a term used describe a bundle of momentous U.S. federal tax increases and spending cuts that are due to take effect at the end of 2012 and early 2013 (CFR). Analysts everyone claim that in order to avoid certain 'deleterious economic effects' Congress and the president should enact legislation concerning the debt ceiling, tax revenue increases, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.

I wonder if the fiscal cliff really will occur what the government will do to solve or abate it from happening. To what extent could nothing have been done previously because of  lame-duck legislators or a lack of bipartisanship in the United States government? Please leave your comments below.