As others see it: 'Fiscal cliff' looms

Talk about it

Once the Nov. 6 election is over, Congress will have less than two months to get its act together and do something constructive about the fiscal and economic crisis that is looming.

The White House and Congress simply must take decisive action to stop the $16 trillion national debt from growing. The last time the debt matched the U.S. gross domestic product was right after World War II, when the nation had a pretty good reason for deficit spending — saving the world from tyranny.

But of more immediate concern are a massive tax increase and automatic government spending cuts that will kick in if Congress does not stop them before Jan. 1. Still struggling to cope with the recession, tens of millions of families — and the economy as a whole — cannot cope with higher taxes. And the automatic spending cuts could cripple national security.

Regardless of how the election turns out, President Barack Obama will be president during the “lame-duck session” of Congress later this year. That will make it difficult to avoid the tax increases, unless they can actually find the will to work together. We pray that they do.

Tags: opinion, editorials, politics