Fiscal Cliff or Fiscal Stoop?
By Tommy Acosta
(December 23, 2012)
The media frenzy over the looming Fiscal Cliff and panic over its consequences has nothing to do with reality.
Get over it. Nothing worse than raised taxes on everyone can happen! Does anyone really think Washington is going to let that occur?
Perhaps we’ll suffer a scraped economic knee but no 300-foot straight-down-drop to a waiting shoreline of jagged rocks as the media keeps threatening and predicting.
Think of it this way, if the Republicans don’t come to the table and deal, taxes are going to go up big time, especially for them. The purse-string pullers in the party are not going to be happy because the GOP will ultimately get the blame for the fiasco.
They endured a beating in the election. They are like a boxer who forgets to take his boots off after a fight and takes a shower with them on.
They are dazed and Obama is circling, looking to hit them hard and make them look even worse in the eyes of the American people if they don’t play ball.
He’s got a heavy right hand waiting behind his left shoulder. They can’t afford to take another hit.
They will throw in the towel to save their own skins. Obama and company will get what they want.
Obama will leave room on the table for them to save face. The deal won’t smell nice but it will get us over the hump and set the stage for the mid-term election battle.
A big fear factor for investors is the threat that the market will suffer a KO if we hurtle off the Fiscal Cliff.
The market might take a sympathy hit for show but the fact is there are wars everywhere and fat budgets for military spending. The market will shrug it off.
The Fiscal Cliff is just another media hype feeding the fears of a frightened public.
Fear keeps the public glued to the media news outlets. Fear keeps them watching through all the commercials so they could see after each one just how much more they have to fear.
They fear an illusion. When the fear of the Fiscal Cliff fades into the past, another fear will be waiting.
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4 Comments
The real issue is being missed in all the media hype. Do we want to continue to feed the banks with more debt? Truth of the matter, the American people can never, ever pay the federal deficit. It is mathematically impossible. Default now, or default later, either way it is inevitable. We cannot continue to live on borrowed dollars that were created out of thin air. They are backed by the labors of you and me and our future.
Look at Iceland for an example of a country that rode the cliff. The bailed out the country and jailed the criminal bankers. They refused more bailout debt and instead took control of their country’s wealth. Chicken little was wrong. The sky didn’t fall.
Unfortunately people do not realize that 51% is not a “mandate”, as the president and his minions want the public to believe. I also think it interesting that the word “Republicans” is batted around like some evil doers. Under the Constitution, all spending bills must originate in the House. Then the Senate typically takes up the bill, creates its own version, votes on it and if different than the House bill, goes to conference. That’s the way it worked until Obama got into office and Harry Reid took control of the senate. Despite dozens and dozens of bills coming out of the House regarding spending and the reducing of programs, not one has been generated in the senate. As a result, no conference committee, and nothing sent to the president’s desk. Heck – no one reading this can’t tell me that a 10% cut on EVERYTHING is not doable.
And folks – please do not fall for the Reid “We already cut $1 TRILLION dollars over $10 YEARS. When you understand baseline budgeting you will realize that Harry Reid is taking advantage of the public’s extreme ignorance in government speak.
Is Reid so afraid of the senators that are up for election in two years that they may actually get a little fiscal sense, and a bill would actually go to the president that has a little compromise?
We do not and have never had a revenue problem. “Go back to the Clinton tax days” they shout from the rooftops. Go back to the Clinton federal budget I respond, because you will NEVER hear that from liberals or the news media. For any entry you must have an offsetting entry to balance. Try teaching a liberal economics 101, or for that matter, just try to get them to balance their own check book. Not happenin.
Our federal budget is:
• 20% Social Security – $720 B ILLION
• 21% Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP $756 BILLION
• 13% “Safety Net” programs (try NOT turning them into Hammock programs) 468 BILLION
• 6% Interest on debt $216 BILLION
• 20% Defense and International Security Assistance $720 BILLION
• 7% Federal Retirees and Veterans $252 BILLION
• 3% Transportation Infrastructure $108 BILLION
• 2% Education $72 BILLION
• 2% Science and Medical research $72 BILLION
• 1% Non-security International $3.6 BILLION
• 4% All other $14.4 BILLION
• (Source – Center on Budget Policy)
40% of these expenditures we BORROW FROM CHINA AND OTHER SOURCES.
Yes, elections have consequences, and if you are an elected official, with any integrity, you will actually do what you told your constituents you would do. And that is exactly what many of the members of the House are doing. Exactly what they were ELECTED to do. So…get over it folks.
Going over the “cliff” is exactly what the president wants. He gets his tax increases; he gets big cuts in the military (One of the CORE jobs the Federal Government is supposed to do under the Constitution), and he gets the middle class plus the upper class to pay for it. BUT MOST of the money will come from the middle class, BECAUSE THAT’S WHERE THE MAJORITY OF THE WEALTH IS IN THIS COUNTRY – AND HE AND GUYS LIKE HARRY REID and PELOSI KNOW IT.
Tax the $250K+ earners which the majority are independent businesses – give it your best shot. You raise about $50 billion. Your deficit for the last 4 years has been a total of $5 TRILLION, and this year is looking to be another bang up year of $1 TRILLION + in the hole. Take $50 Billion off that for his “Rich are not paying their fair share nonsense”, and forget the President wants to spend ANOTHER $50 BILLION MORE this next year, and you make NO dent in our deficit. Heck, just ELIMINATE the DEFENSE DEPARTMENT and all the money we give to foreign governments for the support of planet security, you STILL are short $280 BILLION dollars.
Are we as a country THIS STUPID or SELFISH to realize that our kids futures are toast? Hats off to President Obama, the fiscal cliff will get him exactly what he wants, smaller defense, taxes on the middle class and the blame to the Republicans. And we will all suffer, except those who already have acquired their assets; they will avoid the cliff and the pain, as throughout history, they always have.
Mike, thanks for telling it like it is and should be. You all know what I call those politicians that will do anything for money, power, and prestige while at the same time ruining our country. I wish I could say what I really think of them without the fear of being carted off to some prison and never heard from again. I think our government now has that power under the “terrorist legistration” and wouldn’t hesitate to use it. Just look at what has happened to the bloke that did the You Tube video that allegibly caused the Bengazi attack. While on that subject, you’d think the prez would have enough stature and decency to award the two Navy Seals the Navy Cross, which is our highest award he could give to them. Probably never entered his or the White House cadres’ mind(s). This is just another example of his shallow, conceited mind.
Ted
A very good reply by Mike Schroeder to Mr. Acosta’s editorial . His math is true and he backs up what he says with numbers and facts, unlike the author of the subject article.
His analysis holds water if one assumes the end game here by those Mr. Acosta calls “purse-string-pullers,” is a balanced budget.
Well, sorry to dissapoint those who still believe we have a benevolent leadership that has the best interest of the country and its future in mind.
Like Mr. Schroeder concludes, there can be no balanced budget. Ever. Everyone knows that, especially those that have positioned themselves to profit from the crash.
The plan is to drive this breaking-down car called our economy until it sputters to a dead stop and then abandon it on the road and go steal a new one.
Unfortunatly, there will be no room in the new car for the middle class. Get your hitch-hiking shoes on America. You will be walking a road unlike any you have ever gone down before.