Sober Look: We are approaching a US fiscal 'stimulus' cliff

``According to Goldman Sachs, the total of amount of dollars the US government will be taking out of the economy is about $600 billion. Clearly some of these provisions may be modified or extended. But given the sharply divided Congress and the contentious election year, the political impasse is likely to continue. A large portion of these tax increases and austerity measures may take effect. These changes will potentially be a positive for the US budget deficit, but for an economy that is still fragile and somewhat dependent on government stimulus, it will certainly generate a material drag on the GDP growth. ''