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Heritage.org
Morning
Bell: Obama and Congress Are Choosing
to Cause a Recession
By Amy Payne
September 27, 2012
President
Obama recently said, “The most
important lesson I’ve learned is you can’t change Washington from the
inside.”
That’s demoralizing to hear when a recession is bearing down on the
economy—and
it’s an inside job.
The
Congressional Budget Office has forecasted
a fresh recession to hit next year if Taxmageddon, a nearly $500
billion tax
increase, hits the nation and Congress and the President drive us off
the
“fiscal cliff.” President Obama has done nothing but ignore this
warning.
In
a new report, Heritage’s J.D. Foster
explains that the very fact that we can see a recession coming is
shocking.
“Economic forecasters almost never forecast recessions,” he says.
“Those few
who do forecast recessions do so with great frequency and belong to the
doom-and-gloom school of economics.” Yet we can see this one a mile
away:
What
makes this recession different, and predictable,
is that the disruptive force is Washington policies and, even more,
Washington
behaviors—policies and behaviors for which the nation can thank the
Congress
and especially President Obama. The policy is Taxmageddon. The behavior
is
intentional, insistent inaction. The consequence is recession. The
response
should and will be outrage.
The
problem is extremely clear. Congress has
left town and isn’t scheduled to return until after the November
election. With
every day that passes, the economy drags, as the uncertainty of January
1
looms.
Economists
talk a lot about “uncertainty.” Why
is uncertainty such a big deal?
Business
owners are looking at next year’s
taxes already and thinking they can’t afford to hire. Investors are
holding
back from expansions and new ventures. This massive uncertainty is
holding back
all growth and keeping unemployment stubbornly above 8 percent, while
millions
have dropped out of the labor force because they are so discouraged.
Uncertainty
affects your personal finances, too.
Think about this: If you’re a middle-class American family, Taxmageddon
means
that your taxes are going up about $4,100 next year. How does that
affect your
thinking about traveling for Thanksgiving in a couple of months? Buying
Christmas presents? What about saving for retirement or your children’s
education?
It
starts to hit home that you have to come up
with that $4,100 somehow. You’re going to have to make cuts in your
lifestyle
to be able to pay this tax increase…
Read
the rest of the article at Heritage.org
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