re: #1 Bob Dillon

“The long-term deficit crisis had not been solved, but merely put off, leaving the United States at the edge of the fiscal cliff, where it remains today.”

But now the President is in a position to make a deal. If he is reelected, the Bush tax cuts are set to expire, and the only thing the GOP really cares about is low marginal tax rates for the rich. So the President will have the leverage to negotiate for stimulus to create jobs, long term debt reduction and a raise in the debt limit in return for an extension of the Bush tax cuts.