BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Republican Party The Fiscal Cliff

Are you keeping up with the goings on in Congress regarding the increase in taxes and non-existent reductions in spending?

I know that when I have expenses greater than my income, I need to cut back on those expenses.

Americans have forgotten who the government is. The government is we the people of the United States. It is not a tree with money growing on it.

What a cliff hanger this fiscal cliff story has! Let's see what happens next.

Eric Cantor suggests raising the debt ceiling so that the government can pay their bills; however, the Senate needs to come up with a budget by May 1. If no budget, members of Congress will not be paid as they have not done their job. What do you think about this?

House passed the bill, Congress members will not receive their salaries until the budget is passed. The salaries will be held until the end of the session. Do you think this is going to do any good?

Personally, I know that it is easy to raise the debt ceiling; it's easy to overspend but eventually you face the music - either tighten your belt and pay off your debts or you go bankrupt.

We work in the medical field and depend heavily on Medicare reimbursements. Due to the potential, and current, cut backs, we have drastically reduced our spending. It really hurt to tell our landscaper, pool guy, and housekeeper that we would no longer need their services. We will now do these chores ourselves to save money. I worry about the people that were doing this for us before but we have to cut back somewhere. The current government is hurting everyone.

What do you think of all that is going on in Washington and around the country at this time? Not only the scandals but there are still repercussions from the sequestration. I read that although federal employees ar3e furloughed one day a week they are saving their days to take at one time so that they can get unemployment payments. The employers are giving them the information they need for the process.

CNN Money: Furloughed federal workers can collect unemployment