Measures would include the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the enactment of $1 trillion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts because Congress has failed to devise an alternative debt-reduction plan.
Paradoxically, the fiscal cliff would improve the deficit, reducing it from 7.3% of GDP in 2012 to about 4% in 2013. And deficits would continue to fall dramatically through 2018 before starting to rise as the costs of supporting an aging population kick in. By 2022, the debt would fall to 58.5% of GDP, from a projected 73% this year.
