What’s the “fiscal cliff” and why are we jumping off of it?

The morning after last Tuesday’s presidential election one of the first things that I heard and read on the radio was the subject of the United States falling off a “fiscal cliff” and how Speaker of the House John Boehner told the president that we as Americans are looking up to him to help us avoid off of it.  I was curious as to what Mr. Boehner was referring to as a “fiscal cliff” and this article from NPR explained it to me plain and simple.  What Boehner was talking about was that effective Dec. 1 2013, the Bush tax cuts that were imposed in 2001 would expire, meaning that taxes will increase even more on both the wealthy and the middle class.  Further more unemployment benefits will be cut so millions of Americans that receive help from the government will be on their own.  If you would like some more information on how jumping off  the “fiscal cliff” would affect you, there is another wonderful article by NPR that highlights certain scenarios from the increase in taxes that could possibly affect our economy.  As we near the end of the year, we will probably hear this term of “fiscal cliff” become more prevalent, however it is important to look at both sides of the coin, no matter how one sided it looks right now.