Americans Fed Up With Fed Over Fiscal Cliff

It can be somewhat difficult to gauge where the American people are at regarding the looming threat of the fiscal cliff. Though most Americans seem to have President Obama’s back while a precious few will hold Democrats in Congress responsible for failed negotiations, it’s safe to say that the one thing we have in common right now as Americans is our frustration with the government’s inability to reach a deal.

“They should make a plan, make up their minds and do something!” Abigail Holt of Hartford, CT told NBC News. She may only be 17-years-old, but even she finds this whole fiscal cliff thing really “annoying.”

Howard Kurtz for The Daily Beast called Capitol Hill “the country’s biggest day-care center,” and famous sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer noted on Twitter that “Members of Congress who can’t compromise probably aren’t good lovers.” Ouch!

But the lack of faith in Congress’s ability to reach a fiscal cliff deal isn’t limited to teenagers, columnists, or sex therapists. Despite healthy backing for President Obama and the Democrats at large, Gallup shows that only 50 percent of Americans think the fed will reach a deal in time, down from 10 percent just a few weeks ago. That, friends, is a sharp statistical decline. What’s more, skepticism is on the rise. Almost 50 percent think it’s unlikely that the problem will be solved in time, up 10 percent from two weeks ago.

Many are also upset about Congress’ recent vacation. “This is one of the most important issues and they are not even working,” said Bill Prosser of Clifton, VA. “I’m very disappointed in them.”

“Just say you’re not going to leave until you have a deal,” Prosser said. “Get in a room — and get it done!”

Some have been asking whether it would be so bad if we went over the fiscal cliff at all. Jeffrey Sachs wrote for The Huffington Post that fiscal free-fall would actually be a good because it would finally end the Bush era tax cuts (which both GOP and Dems are pushing to maintain, just for different people).

“It is time to awake from the fiscal fantasy that Bush and Cheney pushed on us during 2001-3 and that both parties have continued until now,” he writes.

What do you think is the solution to the fiscal cliff? Spend less? Tax more? Something in-between?

Do you think that our elected officials will solve the problem in time?