Governor Fallin Meets With President Obama Over Fiscal Cliff

Governor Fallin was one of six Governors at the White House weighing in on the pending tax hikes and spending cuts.

Tuesday, December 4th 2012, 6:32 pm



Governor Mary Fallin met with President Obama Tuesday about the upcoming fiscal cliff.

Governor Fallin was one of six Governors at the White House weighing in on the pending tax hikes and spending cuts.

12/4/2012 Related Story: Oklahoma Governor Attends Fiscal Cliff Meeting At White House

Without a deal, the fiscal cliff will mean significant tax increases for almost all of us. In addition it also includes mandatory spending cuts at the federal level. A combination most economists agree will send the country back into a recession.

"We understand there's a shared responsibility to try and reduce the deficit which we all support," said Gov. Fallin following the meeting.

Steve Agee, Dean of the Meinder's school of business says the current status quo of increasing spending without increasing revenue will lead to disaster.

"We are going to end up in 15 or 20 years like Greece and Spain, which is what we do not want to have happen," Agee said.

President Obama wants to keep the Bush tax cuts in place for everyone who makes under $250,000 a year.

Republicans argue that's not enough.

"We're over-spending and until you deal with that issue, you cannot raise taxes enough to be able to keep up with a trillion dollars of accelerated spending," said Rep. James Lankford (R) Oklahoma.

Governors weighed in on Tuesday that they didn't want those cuts passed down to states in the form of unfunded mandates.

"We asked for flexibility in how the federal money is passed down to the states and how the cuts are passed down," Fallin said.

Still Governors say they left the meeting today, hopeful there would be a resolution. Even though Agee says he believes the economy will adjust if there isn't.

"Going over this fiscal cliff could be a long term solution to our crisis, the problem is in the short term we're going to have pain," he said.

That pain would be in some serious tax increases. 

Use this calculator to figure out how they would affect you

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