POLITICO.com Chief Economic Correspondent, Ben White, recently spoke with us about the much anticipated fiscal cliff. White thinks the current stand off between Democrats and Republicans is a bit of a dance, and that both sides know they will have to give up a little in order to get a deal done.
White says the Republican's stance that increasing taxes on the top two percent would hurt job creation is "not true," as 60 to 70 percent of new jobs come from small businesses, and those small businesses are not in the top two percent of income earners. On the Democrats hesitance toward cutting entitlement programs, White says there are ways to reform entitlements that won't be crushing to anyone and would "make for a longer term viability of the system."
On the economy as a whole, White points to political gridlock and challenges in the housing market as factors holding the economy back.
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