Why Going Over the Fiscal Cliff Is Exactly What Congress and the White House Want

Most of us are hoping for a swift solution to the looming "fiscal cliff." In my opinion, you can just keep on hoping, because nobody is going to do anything to prevent it.

Let's go back. Last August, Washington was embroiled in a fight regarding the raising of the debt ceiling. As part of the legislation passed which ultimately raised the debt ceiling, automatic budget cuts were included and set to take place on January 1 of 2013 if no budget cuts could be agreed to before then.

Now I'm all for budget cuts, but there is also a key piece of legislation still yet to be sorted out: the expiration of the current AMT thresholds.

AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) was developed to make sure that wealthy taxpayers didn't benefit too much from the normal tax code and were made to pay more if their income was over a certain threshold, which has been adjusted, or "patched," to account for inflation.

If Washington fails to act on AMT, the thresholds will revert to the 2000 tax year income levels. For single filers: from $50,600 to $33,750. For married filing jointly: from $78,750 to $45,000. This means that AMT will catch a vast number of filers it was never meant to: middle class filers. Add this in with other tax increases (expiration of the Bush tax cuts that were extended in 2010, Obamacare, etc.) and American taxpayers will be toting lighter wallets in 2013.

Now, why won't Washington do anything? Because this is exactly what everyone in Congress and the White House wants to happen.

Think about it. Without action, on January 1: Americans will be paying higher taxes, budgets will be cut, and both sides of Washington will be able to point across the aisle and say it was the other side's fault. Bases will be galvanized and since we just had elections, no one in Washington will be up for reelection until 2014.

Get ready America. We're going over.