Sorry if this is getting discussed in another thread, couldn't see any thread clearly labelled about this and don't have time to read them all.

Looks increasingly likely that America will "fall off the cliff" tomorrow. I'd be tempted to say good - cutting the deficit is important and I believe the risks are majorly overrated - but I don't expect it to be permanent, which is a shame. My current expectation is that the Democrats will permit the tax rises etc to automatically take effect then on 4 January to immediately reverse the ones they don't like (by this stage a tax cut, not a rise) and extend unemployment benefits etc (which is a terrible idea, those expiring is one of the best parts of the cliff) and dare the Republicans to oppose the tax cuts. Minimal tax rises and spending cuts will be left - and just those it seems wanted by the Democrats.

I don't see any fix actually happening for the deficit, the cliff ought to be a starting point, the least that will happen.

Also can I just say I really dislike this notion of reporting figures as over 10 years. Eg $1.2 Trillion dollars of tax over 10 years keeps getting bandied about as a figure. Nobody knows what will happen in 10 years time, its ridiculous. On new years 2003 did you picture all that has happened over the last decade. Its also not a very impressive sum of money, $120bn per annum on a > $1trillion deficit. Comparing that to the UK with 1/6th of the population that's $20bn per annum or £12.37bn per annum. Given the scale of the challenges, I don't think that's a lot at all.