去年，美国经济以低于2%的增速蹒跚前行，2013年的前景也一样暗淡，即便没有财政悬崖冲击也是如此。 这样的扩张速度太慢，不能抵消财政悬崖所带来的税率提高和支出削减，后两者将让明年总需求下降6 000亿美元（约为GDP的4 % ） ，后年更甚。
The US economy has been limping along with a growth rate of less than 2% during the past year, with similarly dim prospects in 2013, even without the shock of the fiscal cliff.  That is much too weak a pace of expansion to tolerate the fiscal cliff’s increase in tax rates and spending cuts, which would reduce demand by a total of $600 billion – about 4% of GDP – next year, and by larger sums in subsequent years.