You would think that Congress and Obama would be hard at work trying to head off the impending disaster. That isn't necessarily the case ...
Obama just this week appointed Tim Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury and tax cheater, to be his representative in negotiations with Republicans on the issue. JUST NOW!!!!!!
(This same Tim Geithner, the person who is supposed to the be fiscal guide for the country, the expert on fiscal policy, came out early this week and stated that the Debt Ceiling Limit should be abolished - so the government can spend how ever much money it wants, and drive us as deep into debt as it wants, with no legal restraint. How's that for responsible fiscal policy?)
Democrat leaders in both the House and Senate have been blurting out their talking points on the subject to any camera they can find. Budget cuts are off the table, unless they are Defense. Social Security reform can't even be talked about. Obamacare is unapproachable.
HIs Highness, instead of being right in the thick of negotiations, is out blowing a lot of taxpayer money on a campaign tour to prop up his 'soak the rich' message.
Geithner had his first meeting with John Boehner, Speaker of the House, today on the emergency. Boehner came out of the meeting frustrated and angry that Geithner had presented absolutely nothing in the way of proposals except for their months old line of 'raise taxes on the rich' ... no reform, no budget cuts, no tax code changes - nothing.
Here are the facts of what Democrats are proposing at this point to come up with the required 1.2 Trillion dollar amount of cuts/revenue required to keep the automatic Jan.2 cuts from happeneing;
1) Raise the tax rate on the rich from 35% to 39%.
2) Count on savings from Medicare and Medicaid, that will supposedly provide savings ... BUT in no way can be allowed to impact any amount of benefits delivered to anyone. (How this is supposed to happen is beyond me. Obamacare already counts on robbing 761 billion dollars from these two program in order to fund 'free Obamacare shit'. How in the hell are they going to find more than 761 billion in waste and fraud in those programs, and if they do, how much is that going to be?)
That's it.
Those are the only things Democrats have been willing to consider. Someone who knows 'liberal math' needs to explain to me how raising the tax rate (which will result in slightly less than 80 billion in additional revenue per year) is supposed to solve a 1.2 trillion dollar requirement. Anyone have that answer for me?
Someone who understands liberal economics need to explain how this tiny drop in the deficit bucket is supposed to outweigh the devastating effect the higher tax rate will have on small business (the largest employer in the country), cause hundreds of thousands more people to lose their jobs (the layoffs have already begun), and push the country further down into a general recession. Someone please explain the logic of that tradeoff.
Given the facts of what Democrats are (or are not would be a better portrayal) proposing, you would think the public outcry would be massive. Well, most of the public doesn't know about it, for the mainstream media is busy portraying Republicans as the roadblock to an agreement.
Now, here's a little secret ...
Congress passed the law that will trigger the automatic cuts. Congress passed the laws that will cause the automatic tax increases and the same time.
Congress can just as easily pass a law negating those earlier laws. There is no such thing as a permanent, untouchable law (even though Democrats tried to write that provision into Obamacare, in order to keep any future Congress from repealing it - that effort failed).
Congress can also pass laws undoing the fiscal damage after the fact, if they want to.
So why all the hubbub, why all the outrage? Because 'Fiscal Cliff' is a headline, and it is an issue that Democrats are using to bash Republicans over the head. Dems and the manistream media are barraging the public constantly with 'rich, white Republicans hate you, and they're only interested in keeping their money'. It is effective. For their target audience, it is like chumming the shark infested waters.
A side benefit to Democrats is IF the automatic cuts are triggered, the Defense Department gets eviscerated - and that makes liberals orgasmic in anticipation.
The Fiscal Cliff is a win/win for Democrats. It is a lose/lose for Republicans, for no matter what bad option happens, mainstream media will blame the GOP for it.
Update - Geithner's meeting with Congressional Republican leadership went less than well, that's for certain. Not unexpected, I guess.
Geithner brought the President's proposal and laid it out - 85 billion in increased revenue per year by allowing the Bush tax cuts for 'the rich' to expire (which is a tax increase). 1.6 trillion in unspecified new taxes over the next 10 years. Hopefully some additional savings can be found in Medicare, but no cuts, no commitments. AND, Obama takes complete control of the debt ceiling, raising it whenever he wants to - not when Congress (which has the Constitutional authority) approves.
Not a single budget cut or reduction in the proposal - nothing but tax increases - plus an unprecedented power grab.
Unbelievable that a President, who is out there right now campaigning on how bad the Republicans are, and how they are preventing any kind of deal, has the gall to roll out such a pile of bullshit, and then get indignant when Republicans go WTF?
Update II - More details of Obama's 'opening offer', presented by Geithner. It included INCREASED spending in the form of another stimulus bill. The amount, 85 billion dollars, is more than the expected revenue gain from their raising the tax rates on 'the rich'.
If this doesn't expose their attack on the rich as what it is - an attack based on FAIRNESS ... uh, I mean HATRED, made to please Obama's base. That's all it is - it isn't about the money at all.
Obama has decided to punt and make the Republicans come up with a plan. Then he can sit back and shoot it down, without ever having to put forward anything serious himself. Lazy, calculating f**k ...
And, please don't believe that he's going to be hard at work trying to find aq compromise right down to the wire. No, Dear Leader is spending the time between Dec. 17th and Jan. 6th in Hawaii, on an all expense paid (by the taxpayer) 5 Star beadch front vacation for him, family, and several dozen of their friends. I wonder how the 99% feel about paying for that? Being in Hawaii keeps him away form Washington, and away from any actual work on this issue.
Obama is hell bent on driving us over the cliff, and all he will do is blame Republicans.
Update - Figures released by the CBO indicate that Obama is lying. Wow ... how surprising.
Obama states that those rich white bastards have to be soaked for more taxes, in order to cut the deficit and pay down the debt. He's stated that he MUST havbe 1.6 trillion in new tax revenue in order to do it. 1.6 trillion ... our debt is 16 trillion. Seems like there is a synergy there, doesn't it? The normal, brain dead idiot who voted for him will believe him when he says he's going to cut spending and fix our fiscal problems with all this money taken from the evil rich.
Well, guess what? The vast majrotiy of that 1.6 trillion is earmarked by Obama towards NEW spending, above and beyond what he's already burning through;
75% of what Obama is demanding, 1.2 trillion dollars, will go towards NEW spending. Not exactly the public message he's spitting out, is it?
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