Da Fiscal Cliff!!

The power of self inflicted PR at its best.

There is no honor in conceding to an oppressor, and our President, probably under the dire influence of his financial backers, has done just that. In effect he has thrown his constituency under the wheels of the richest group of opponents that any President has had to face since the era of the megalo-millionaires and the corporations that feed them. Fuelled by billions of dollars in panicked money addicted individuals and corporations, who have mounted one of the most impressive fear mongering PR campaigns since Carl Rove and his ilk taught them how to build them, Obama has pieced together a compromise that is far worse for our country and the majority of the voters than just going over “the cliff”.

We, the People, spoke in November. Our message to our President and the oppressing minority was clear. If elected you must drive down the taxes on those who are carrying the responsibility of keeping our country afloat, you must start a radical effort to create jobs, you must stop superfluous spending by sacrificing non-essential services like defense, but most importantly you must procure money to save our financial future from those who flaunt their wealth, control our country and destroy our values.

In other words, Mr. President, emulate Willy Sutton and get the money you need from where it is.

He has failed because he took the shortest sight option that he could and confused his needs for those of the country. Our President opted to maintain his money where it was and cozied up to the Norquist mentality of no pledge, no cash.

By going over the cliff people below the $250,000 income level would see their taxes increase about $1,000 for the lower income families, not in itself a bad thing. But going over the cliff would have increased the taxes on the higher income brackets about the same percentage and that represents a significantly greater number of dollars put back into our deficit riddled government. Of course, by extending the tax cuts to those of us lucky enough to fall into the $400,000 tax bracket, welcome aboard the Bush era gravy train, you will now be even more useless than you were before.

So what happens now?

Going over the cliff would see the deficit would be reduced in half in 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office but with some very dire consequences for the country, a slow rise of the unemployment figure from today’s 7.7% to possibly 9% the rate we had in October of last year. It took us two months to get to where we are, a sobering thought because our economy has been heating up from lethargic to shambling.

Make no mistake, the Bush tax cuts were and are a disaster fueled by a grossly bloated cadre of multi billion dollar corporations riding roughshod over the economy, freed of all restraints through the Citizens United decision and their equally bloated multi billionaire executives, owners and shareholders with so much extra capital that on a whim they can elect to run for office, lose and shrug off the exercise.

The deal just signed is another disaster for most Americans. Yes, the filthy rich will have to pay more taxes, from 15% to 20%, an almost ridiculous amount of money considering the fact that they may have to invest less than 1% to re-jigger their tax forms. It is very hard for the average American to understand the games these people play to protect their gains, but if you really think that it is a fair game, just remember the trouble the loser in the last election took to protect us from understanding how he gamed the system. Just understand that where we, the people, pay income taxes, they the filthy rich, make their money from investments, offshore hideouts and other “no-new tax” shelters. So, no new money there!

They do appear to be less cynical than we thought since they prolonged the unemployment benefits for another year. Guilty conscious, probably? Complete faith in the fact that they know that their compromise means nothing?  Probably true on both counts. Because the new Bill hammered out in the wee hours of a new year does sweet bugger all for me and thee, maintains the rules and regulations that not only provided the trillions needed to maintain the rich, but also does not even begin to hammer away at their ability to continue to destroy the middle class while burying the poor even deeper.

In contemplating the venality of someone we, the people, voted into office on some clear and specific clauses, we can only assume that the President has sold out to that moneyed elite we wished to separate from our future. Clearly stated during the campaign, elimination of the privileges that corporations and people who can buy their own legislation was high on the list. The number $250,000 income, was indisputable, the raising of the elite taxes was high on our list, the elimination of corporate protection, and the elimination of a number of entitlements were also on that list. Untouched and only slightly abraded, corporate taxes, defense spending, income tax levels, and a host almost too numerous to mention are a clear indication that the GOP is not the problem, just a symptom of the disease that invades our country.

We may yet go over the cliff, if someone in government grows a set of balls and refuses to gainsay this shameful sham of a bill. Believe me, all things considered, it would be a far better thing to admit that the era of shameless money grubbing is over, and that fear mongering scare tactics, brilliant slogans and voodoo economics has to cease.