(SIOUX CITY, IA) Only half of the "fiscal cliff" has been averted, the other half is in limbo. Members of Congress basically gave themselves a few extra months to get spending cuts in line, they'll meet within the next few months to hammer out details. But coming to an agreement may be easier said then done.
And Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says, he wants to see an even trade when it comes to the issue.
"Globally the world sees us as having too much debt. And we need a multitude of policies to help us reduce our debt, reduce our trade deficit and keep our economy growing," says Marilyn Eastman, a Business Professor at Briar Cliff University.
If you break it down to a smaller scale, take for example, your own personal budget. When you don't have any money in the bank, and you can't take out another loan to pay your bills, you officially become bankrupt. The U.S. Government is dealing with the same issue, and in the months to come the battle could get ugly.
"The fight that we're having in congress is how to go about getting a budget passed that raised the debt ceiling. And to do that, that's where you see the partisan approaches come. The republicans in congress say we're not going to vote for a new budget that raises our debt ceiling until we have some spending cuts," says Eastman.
And right now, no specific cuts have been thrown into the mix of ideas.
"My impression is that they are taking a breather right now. They are trying to sort of gather their caucuses together and come up with a republican plan and a Democratic plan and I expect that we'll be seeing that in the next few weeks," she says.
Iowa senator, Chuck Grassley says whatever those cuts may be, its important to trade apples for apples.
"Were going to approach it the same way we did in July of 2011, when we reached an agreement that is now policy, fiscal policy of the Federal Government for the fiscal year that we're in," says Senator Grassly, "We're going to demand, one dollar of expenditure reduction for every one dollar in the debt ceiling. It seems to me to be a fair way to do it."
"I think they're hoping that the American public will sort of stop paying attention for a little while, and they'll be able to negotiate without this white hot spotlight of the American media, and this scary "fiscal cliff" upon them," says Eastman.
Eastman says, if the debt ceiling isn't raised, America's credit rating could potentially be damaged. The Bipartisan Policy Center says the negotiations settled on by Congress yesterday should be enough to hold off the debt limit until sometime in February. By that time, Congress will have to raise the ceiling between $730 billion and $1.25 trillion dollars to avoid the debt ceiling for all of 2013. And between $1.3 trillion and $2.2 trillion in 2014.
Hleigh@siouxlandnews.com
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