“财政悬崖”能拯救美国赤字吗？(1/2)

英语自学网

概述： 奥巴马签署法令，提升税收，以此拯救美国的巨额财政赤字。
Hints:
Congress
Obama
Social Security
校对：lexie0406
翻译&注解：Vera-M
组长：ldzh43
答疑：艾晴墨
发音点评：babyskylon
本期材料发音模仿地址：http://bulo.hujiang.com/menu/11885/item/717436/On January 1st, both houses of the United States Congress approved a plan that will increase taxes for most Americans. But the agreement avoided much larger tax increases that were set to take effect this year.
President Obama signed the bill into law late Wednesday. In a statement, he noted the importance of a balanced approach to the country's fiscal problems.
"Today's agreement enshrines, I think, a principle into law that will remain in place as long as I am president. The deficit needs to be reduced in a way that's balanced. Everyone pays their fair share. Everyone does their part. That's how our economy works best. That's how we grow."
The combination of higher taxes and automatic budget cuts has been called the "fiscal cliff." That cliff has been avoided, but much remains to be done. Congress has given itself another two months to decide on how to cut the federal budget. More tax money and budget reductions are needed to cut the federal deficit. That deficit was over $1 trillion last year.
The new law increases the tax rate on individuals with earnings of over $400,000 and on couples with earnings of over $450,000. All working Americans will have some kind of tax increase. This is because the share of Social Security taxes paid by employees will return to 2010 levels, an increase from last year of 2%.今年1月1日，美国国会参众两院一致通过了一项针对大部分美国人的提税计划。但同时该计划也避免了原定于今年实施的更大幅度的增税。
周三晚些时候，总统奥巴马签署了该法令。在声明中，他强调了采取平衡措施解决国家财政问题的重要性。
奥巴马讲到，“今天这份协议将一项原则变为法律，只要在我任职期间，这份法令将会一直生效。那就是削减赤字需要保持平稳，人人尽其责，出其力，如此才能保证我们国家的经济得以最好的运作和发展”。
增税和自动削减预算这两项政策相叠加，就是所谓的财政悬崖。 尽管目前已经设法避免了财政悬崖，但仍有很多工作要做。国会计划用两个月时间来决定如何削减国家预算。增税和减支都是为达到削减国家赤字这个目的。而去年的赤字已经超过了一万亿美元。
此项新法调高了收入40万美元以上的个人和收入45万美元以上的夫妻的税率。美国所有工薪人员都有不同程度的增税。这是因为雇员所缴社会保障税的份额回归到2010年的水平，比去年增加了2%。