Corporate America sweats as U.S. nears fiscal cliff

Corporate America is preemptively hitting the brakes as the fiscal cliff swiftly approaches. In the next six months, 34 percent of U.S. CEOs plan to cut jobs in the United States—up from 20 percent a quarter ago, according to a Business Roundtable survey. If the $600 billion in spending cuts and higher taxes does go through, the defense and health care sectors will feel it worst, but the rest of the country will still feel the slowdown. The only way to stop the spending cuts and tax increases is for Democrats and Republicans to come up with a budget plan by Dec. 31, but some politicians on both sides of the aisle think a postponement of the deadline to early or mid-2013 is a more likely outcome.