Can the Fiscal Cliff Be Avoided? Affluent Investors Not Confident

With the election now a distant memory, the fiscal cliff has leapt to the top of lawmakers’ to-do lists The question is: Can a bipartisan agreement between the White House and Congress be reached in time before the end-of-the-year tax cuts and mandatory spending cuts take effect? Also: Can the nation pay the price if a compromise cannot be reached?

Another key question: Will they talk? House Speaker John Boehner released a statement Wednesday addressing the President to “Let’s challenge ourselves to find the common ground that has eluded us.” For his part, the president has spoken to Boehner and other congressional leaders by phone since his re-election. “The president reiterated his commitment to finding bipartisan solutions to: reduce our debt in a balanced way, cut taxes for middle-class families and small businesses and create jobs,” the White House said in a statement.

The stakes are high: It is estimated that no deal on the fiscal cliff would raise the average U.S. household tax burden by $3,500, reports Richard Wolf in USA Today. So this newfound talk of compromise will perhaps ease the concerns of Affluent Americans who are not confident that bipartisanship will triumph.

More than half of Affluent households surveyed in October by Millionaire Corner said they either disagree or strongly disagree with the statement, “I am confident that Congress will decide on a solution to the fiscal cliff.”  Only 17 percent agreed with that statement. On the plus side, this is up from last July, when 10 percent of Affluent respondents said, “Congress will never let us fall of ‘the cliff.’” But 44 percent at that time said they were very concerned that the deadline would pass without an agreement and the company would slide back into a recession.

Across age levels, younger households under the age of 40 are the least pessimistic that a solution will be found to avoid the fiscal cliff (44 percent), while those over the age of 60 are the most pessimistic (56 percent).

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