Columbia, SC (WLTX) - With four days until the Fiscal Cliff deadline, WLTX talked with experts about how a "trip over the cliff" can affect your wallet.
"It's going to impact the way you put food on the table and the way you pay your bills. Two percent may not sound like a lot but if you are barely scraping by, 2% is a big difference in what you are taking home or not taking home," said Donny Burkett, CPA for Burkett, Burkett & Burkett.
USC finance professor, William Hauk, says the compromise on the debt ceiling was to ensure that a long term budget plan would be made by the end of this year.
"Unfortunately they haven't done that so we are just about to hit those big tax hikes and spending cuts that they agreed on to try to force them to come to a solution," said Hauk.
One of the cuts is the extended unemployment benefits.
"You know it's basically 26 weeks for most people. People have been enjoying some extended unemployment benefits that will expire too if nothing is done."
What you will feel right away, according to experts, in your wallet or pocket book if a deal isn't reached, will be a larger amount of your check - going toward social security and NOT going into your checking account.
"The employee portion of the social security is 4.2%, it is going up if they don't fix it to 6.2%," said Burkett.
Burkett has been a CPA for more than 30 years.
"A husband and wife who make $50,000 each in salary and with the social security increasing 2%. In 2013, 2% times $100,000 in wages, they are going to take home $2,000less because of Social Security changes."
Government spending will get cut - and that could hurt the Midlands.
"Half of the cuts will happen to defense spending, which could affect people who are employed by Ft. Jackson. Exactly what will be cut is still to be determined."
Burkett says it could also hurt local businesses with hiring and other major decisions.
"It has impacted the number of decisions about how much money to invest in new equipment, how many employees to hire, because at the end of the day they look at their bottom line and if they gotta pay more money in taxes, then that is less money they will make and less money they can invest in their company."
President Obama says party leaders are working over the weekend negotiating until a deal is reached.
