Business leaders: This cliff deal won’t do much to ease economic uncertainty

But business lobbyists said that because itdoes not stabilize rising federal debt levels, the deal could undermine economic growth. They also worried about the psychological effects on both businesses and consumers of watching lawmakers war again and again in the coming months over taxes and spending, under the cloud of a possible sovereign default if they fail to reach agreement.

“There’s nobody holding celebrations today over this agreement,” said John Engler, the president of the Business Roundtable. “There’s a bit of a reaction of, ‘Is that all there is?’ Because there’s a lot that remains to be done.”…

“No one can tell me that this [deal] should make the CEO of a major corporation say, ‘We’re going to hire more, we’re going to invest more, we’re going to build more, because we see a demand building out there for our product,’ ” he said.