Having the term "fiscal cliff" shoved down our throats for months, it would be humane to retire it once and for all. Besides, there is a cliff we are descending-a debt and deficit one-far steeper and more treacherous. The dispiriting compromise negotiated by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) and Vice Pres. Joe Biden was a pathetic reminder of our inability to stop the fall. This compromise does nothing about the profligate spending habits that have been enabled by the Federal Reserve's policy of cheap money and low interest rates and foreign investors' continual purchase of our debt. The removal of millions from the income tax rolls and the increase in entitlement recipients give them little interest in reforming the tax code and controlling spending. The size of this constituency only feeds Pres. Barack Obama's unwillingness to offer serious reform and to postpone judgment day. Should the next four years resemble the previous four, the solutions will take longer and be harder to construct and more painful to enact Four more years of sluggish economic growth, trillion dollar deficits, a weak job market, and little entrepreneurial innovation will leave this country weaker, its population more divided, and the world more unstable.
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