Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
I don’t know about you but I was certainly happy that I woke up this morning. For a few years now there has been great speculation that the world was going to end yesterday. As I fell asleep about 1:00pm last night it was with knowing that in Mexico it was three hours earlier and so that the dread prediction of the world’s end by the Mayan Calendar still may have been possible. The whole idea was a blatant misrepresentation of Mayan belief and hoax-like, yet that didn’t prevent many from making this non-story into yet another way to frighten people. Frightening people with made-up nonsense seems to be a human trait and certainly has been exploited throughout history for one sort of gain or another.
Fear not though, because just as the collective We has just bitten one bullet, another comes along to frighten us once again with disaster and that “disaster” will occur on December 31, 2012, as we come to the end of another turmoil ridden year in societal intercourse. I’m writing, of course, about the “Looming Fiscal Cliff” that has been so very prominent in what our mainstream media calls “news and commentary” and our leaders of both parties call governance. My opinion and that of many others with far more economic expertise than myself, is that the “Fiscal Cliff” is a mere “bogeyman”, used by those politicians on the Right and the Left as leverage to accomplish their particular political agendas.
Since one of the interests of this blog is the Constitution and the consequent Rule of Law that should be its’ result, this comes within our purview because serious issues of national interest are being driven by false mythology grown to myth like proportion. Let’s look at what is behind this mythology and its propaganda.
The premise of the “Fiscal Cliff” is that unless something is accomplished to prevent its dire consequences from occurring on December 31st, our country will slip into the throes of economic disaster. What is the nature of the dire events that will occur?
“The “fiscal cliff’, however, is an invented term applied by politicians to the date various temporary legislative changes to the country’s tax code and spending policy take effect. Politicians began instituting temporary tax cuts with the intention of later transforming them into permanent law in the 1990s. According to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report, this practice exploded during the George W. Bush administration and was accompanied by budget gimmickry to hide their affect on the federal deficit.
The Bush era tax cuts, known respectively as the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, are at the center of the storm that is raging around the “fiscal cliff’. The legislation, which was set to expire in 2010 but was extended to 2012, significantly reduced rates on income, estate and dividends and capital gains taxes and exemptions.
After the sunset of the Bush era tax cuts, estate and gift tax exemptions will end raising the tax rates on transferred estates over $1 million to 55%. Long-term capital gains taxes will rise from its current rate of 15% to 20%. The tax bracket for the country’s wealthiest citizens will rise from the current 35% to 39.6%. In other words, the tax code will largely return to the rates that were in place prior to the George W. Bush administration.”http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Myth-of-the-Fiscal-Cli-by-Abigail-W-Adams-121218-861.html
Now when I read the above my feeling is what does this have to do with me? The Bush Era Tax cuts did little for me, perhaps an extra few hundred dollars a year in my pocket, but given the cost of living today that effect is negligible. As far as Estate Taxes, my children know enough about my financial wealth to understand that what they stand to inherit could possibly pay for my burial and little else that would make them economically better off. In truth by the ideas presented above it seems those most in turmoil about this “disaster” are those whose income is at the top of the heap. Now those on the Left argue that this will also mean the expiration of the so-called middle class tax cuts. As a member of the middle class I remember those cuts well and my overall impression then as now is, the little extra money was nice, but really insignificant in terms of its effect on my standard of living. Where I guess it had some meaning is in a collective sense of the actual extra money spent being circulated in and therefore boosting our economy. The bald reality is that the extra money gained by the working classes does enter the economy, while the extra money garnered by our elite, is simply re-invested in financial instruments for their interest yield and have little effect on the economy via the hoary theory of “trickle down’. It doesn’t “trickle down”, rather it pools at the top.
“This return to the pre-Bush era tax code, coupled with the implementation of spending cuts to reduce the federal deficit and tax penalties associated with health care reform, have many economists screaming recession. Fear of a recession has politicians scrambling to reach a deal that would prevent the parameters of already established legislation from taking effect. The Republican demand in “fiscal cliff’ negotiations in Congress: the permanent implementation of the Bush era tax cuts.
The Congressional Budget Office reported that the Bush era tax cuts were responsible for 14% of the swing from federal budget surplus to federal budget deficit over 2002-2011. The Council of Foreign Relations projects that a permanent extension of the tax cuts will increase federal debt by $3 trillion over the next 10 years. However, due to the fear inspired by the economic catastrophe that is associated with the “fiscal cliff’, the temporary tax cuts instituted to fulfill the campaign promises of George W. Bush may become permanent under Barack Obama. http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Myth-of-the-Fiscal-Cli-by-Abigail-W-Adams-121218-861.html
So what are the consequences of jumping off the “fiscal cliff’? According to many experts, there are none, because the “fiscal cliff’ does not exist. Ken Fisher, named as one of the thirty most influential people in the investment industry, pointed out in an interview with Forbes that changes to the tax code and federal spending do not take affect in one fell swoop. He refers to the “fiscal cliff’ as, “more of a fiscal rolling plain.” (Ken Fisher Talks the Fiscal Cliff, Forbes, 12/18/2012)
There is no “Fiscal Cliff” that this country will fall off from immediately in the New Year, but merely a sequence of events that could be adequately dealt with due process and due diligence as 2013 proceeds. However, the major political parties, each for their own reasons, are willing to say “boo” to the American People to push forward their different agendas. My own suspicion is that much of this fear mongering propaganda has been put forth by those whose economic interests are most vitally at stake and those whose political canon dictates less taxes and less government. “Less Government” except for that “government” most vital to their economic interests, with our bloated Defense Budget being a prime example. The other party of the corporatocracy, the Democratic Party, has once again been upstaged by masterful propaganda and so must play along with this “Fiscal Cliff” mythology by adding their own spin to it. Lately, that has included our President seeming to offer up “entitlement cuts” to programs that aren’t really “entitlements”, but must be pretended to be, since the prevailing propaganda war calling Social Security an “entitlement” seemingly has been won by his opposition. Those who pay payroll taxes, in many case significantly more money than their income taxes, should know that Social Security is not an “entitlement”. However, they have become confused by the propaganda created myth that “Social Security” is not an insurance program, which it most certainly is.
What is going on here put in simple terms is that the wealthy elite of our country have used their media minions and pundit hangers-on to control the public discussion and pollute it into mythology. To understand this better I would to present “Ten Numbers the Rich Would Like Fudged” by Paul Buchheit, from a Nationofchange OpEd.
“1, Only THREE PERCENT of the very rich are entrepreneurs.
2. Only FOUR OUT OF 150 countries have more wealth inequality than us.
3. An amount equal to ONE-HALF the GDP is held untaxed overseas by rich Americans.
4. Corporations stopped paying HALF OF THEIR TAXES after the recession.
5. Just TEN Americans made a total of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS in one year.
6. Tax deductions for the rich could pay off 100 PERCENT of the deficit.
7. The average single black or Hispanic woman has about $100 IN NET WORTH.
8. Elderly and disabled food stamp recipients get $4.30 A DAY FOR FOOD.
9. Young adults have lost TWO-THIRDS OF THEIR NET WORTH since 1984.
10. The American public paid about FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS to bail out the banks.
Bonus for the super-rich: A QUADRILLION DOLLARS in securities trading nets ZERO sales tax revenue for the U.S.” http://www.nationofchange.org/ten-numbers-rich-would-fudged-1353335225
The article linked above provides the backup information and reasoning behin those ten and a bonus numbers that nobody seems to include in this national debate over what the true issues of economic policy entail. The responsibility for this is bi-partisan, since both parties merely represent to different approaches to how to continue the elite in their stranglehold of power in the American System. This is a situation that I think the Founding Fathers might have envisioned, but in giving us the tool of the Constitution, felt the people were those who would have to ensure that their liberties remained in intact.
The question that Americans need to examine is how do they look beyond the propaganda spawned mythology spouted by almost all politicians in this country and come to grips with the real issues that lie below these myths we live by. The “Fiscal Cliff” is a sham and yet we see the most “serious people” in our Nation, like our President play along with it, rather than expose it for the sham it is.
There are deep problems and there are deep divisions in our country that is real and can be agreed with by all. However, the only way to solve these issues is too see what they actually are, rather than solving problems that are chimeric.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger.
Great job Mike. The Cliff is a fiction created to make the increase in taxes look overwhelming and protect the wealthy.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/06/news/economy/tax_gap/index.htm
The abject incompetence of the IRS might have something to do with the grotesque budget deficit, and the associated “Fiscal Cliff.” I’m sorry, I had to say it. I just can’t help myself.
Mass action, even passíve resistance much less civil disobedience leads to massive reaction. That is already on the lawbooks, in the hands of the President, and planned, equipped and rehearsed throughout this nation.
But if the action spreads and increases rapidly in spite of repression, then at least we will go down in history, but the victors will deny our existence so small comfort. That is what the people of Egypt have already faced.
To revolt, or to die by starvation while Antoinette eats cake and frolics—-the equivalent of our rich.
And our conglomerate is however very skilled at decreasing our numbers and margins of life capability while propagandizing with illusions and shock trauma, just so that we won’t launch a mass action.
i say organize as Saul Alinsky taught, and start digging away at their foundations locally. It is easier to give a city a bad media rep, which they fear, than the national charade which goes on over our heads, like a poor puppet show a la Pirandelli. Can’t you just see Obama playing golf with Boehner (sp?).
Tony, good stab at trying to grope your way toward talking about this wholly owned corporation known as the US political system/government. Just how well organized this shadowy conglomeration is (can’t say conspiracy b/c then you’re a conspiracy nut; but the truth of the confluence of like-minded forces may be more frightening than an actual conspiracy) it’s hard to tell.
Fact is, so many of us smell it and observe it’s machinations that to argue against it’s existence may be the less sane path. And, after all, what’s the most reasonable alternative explanation: that the actors are the stupidest, most craven bunch that wouldn’t know an ethical impulse, if it smacked them in the face?
I suppose it’s more than likely that everyone isn’t in the know on the big plan. How could they be? But everyone is compromised just enough to hold the whole charade together; and as we go up the line of power there is a self regulating mechanism, based on greed, power and money that insures a symbiotic functioning.
It’s terribly frustrating to honest critics of the system to find a way to debunk the system and yet take it seriously enough to gain some legitimacy and not totally be marginalized. The PTB count on that marginalization; and keeping the public satiated with fast food and flat screens fits right in. There is little problem defusing actual anger that might arise because the beauty part, as they say, is that the system is designed to take the ridicule and keep on ticking — it’s a crummy system — one side’s as bad as the other, alternately == but it’s ours and its the best in the world. Whatcha gonna do, eh?
Mike thank you.
As to all the Dems including the President who insist on using right wing corporate terms in every debate thus setting themselves up for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I am sick of it. There is no fiscal cliff. It is just another scare tactic so that: huge cuts can be made to social security; the banks can continue to get free money from the FED while the rest of us have to pay the banks to keep our money in checking accounts; fund managers and billionaires will be able to pay less rate wise if not in real dollars than the rest of us and corporations will be able to avoid taxation altogether while exporting jobs overseas. Fear allows all of this to be pushed forward with our President’s acquiescence and the silence of the Democrats.
TonyC,
Always welcome with reality for the blind and those harboring illusions.
Darren Smith and MikeS,
Just a small reminder that MikeS says there is not an inner group here.
Darren could have emailed MikeS, but chooses to show us his inner group status by using this forum.
Hypocrisy, thy numbers are legion. Pathetic.
What other brags will Darren come with next. He has done many before with no challenge from me, but this flys so openly in the face of declarations from the in-group.
We have freedom of association, but “bragging” your connections undet the guise of using this as a private channel is kinda gauche.
And a obvious case of nose-thumbing.
I wish we could see less of this here. Always the idealist, am I.
Jealous, nope. Nor sour grapes. Any such hopes have long disappeared. Just tired of BS from the holier than thou, and I mean Darren in this case. MikeS gave his view on the innergroup question, although I did question its reality. But he did not, viewing the posts here, contribute to this action by Darren.
Belonging is great. MikeS knows from school how it was to have to fight for the first of the 3 B’s—-Being. Then comes belonging. Great too. He did well there. But as he himself notes, the morés of the group may not always internalize well, and become yours.
Glad jul till er både.
I think politics has become pretty much a “wag the dog” operation, in the sense that what is going to be done is already decided by the people with the power to decide; there is no real contest, but for the show (and the big business of campaign donations, political organization donations, and literally creating a show for the print, Internet, Radio and TV pundits to seize upon) the two sides pretend to be at loggerheads until the last minute, and both sides then make fake “concessions” to what they agreed upon months ago, with the excuse that they had no choice, the other side is too damn greedy, half a loaf is better than none, blah, blah, and more blah.
That works for both sides, really, in terms of cash donations, far better than if people knew the real negotiations were dry bifocals horse-trading finished three months ago without any emotion or BS. If people knew that, their wallets and purses would remain closed!
I don’t think every line is scripted, by any means, but I also do not think any of the ad-libs really matter in any way; at the end of the day the whip says vote for this (or you will lose the committee seat at the heart of your big donations, your party support in your reelection, etc) and virtually everybody votes as told. For the “just for show” bills, vote however you want, the more headlines we get the better. The whip will let you know when it really matters.
Mike.
Thank you for the clairity on the issue. Reading your reply I kept thinking of the military / industrial complex speech by Ike, and then you mentioned it. Sometimes I think with regard to your reference to the 800 pound gorilla, it seems the taking steps to make him leave, they keep feeding him and feeding him to placate him and now he is 900 pounds and even less likely to go away.
Also Mike, there might be a note left for you by the post office of a package they tried to deliver to you. That is if I got the address correct. Enjoy.
Two “Enters” gets a premature ejaculation and an involuntary post. Hope some idea went to comprehend.
BTW, look at the length of the finger that Elaine May is pointing with.
If it is not a comic attrap then my name is St. Nick.
Good Yule to all. I guess we prayed to Odin, when that name was adopted for use here.
Had a short encounter yesterday with a swaggering newcomer from Jamaica imported by his girlfriend. He had already mastered God Jul. She smiled and we parted as brothers after I won him over by admiring his style.
He had checked my eyes and bought my words.
When did you last talk with an immigrant?
Ralph Adamo.
The effects thar you point out are well seen in advanced, and used “owned”, and the charade of democratic government extends down to the local PTA . The PTA part I added, but lets not forget the back pockets where as Malisha keeps reminding us of the rotten justice system which can be easily bought,
The so called fiscal cliff is a statutorily enacted cliff. It cannot be a disaster looming because Congress in its wisdom enacted these laws. Had they termed it a fiscal cliff or a physical cliff or cliff notes when they enacted it then it would not have passed muster. Lets just agree to not agree and fall over the cliff and see what happens. Begin shorting stocks or stock indexes today. Before its too late. We are about to drive off into the Atlantic Ocean. Say a prayer for the Great Republic. Buy Apple today. Sell Kraft. Get no where near B of A. Short Wells Fargo. Long on Ding Dongs.
The ladies follow it all exceedingly well. Thanks from one who does not.
I only ask as some do, if there are not contrary results possible.
Examples:
—-How can the Senate send over a “middle class tax” bill, when stopping it only requires an anonymized cell phone call, threatening a filibuster.
—-Who is going to inform the folks at home that the tea baggers missed the Plan B chance? Not the media, at all levels, which are dependent on their largesse and that of their supporters. Generally, folks abandon the ideas they have already internalized least willingly. The message instead will be: it is “Washington and the incalcitrant Dems” who will be blamed and the campaign coffers swell once again.
—-What says that the Dems and Obama will fare better in January? The corporations do control the agenda, the media, and the most attractive slogans. As long as Obama is seen as a conceder and not a leader, then his prospects are not better. We don’t need him as a Harry Reid, but as a Theodore Roosevelt.
Wrong. The Fiscal Cliff is very real….. and very dangerous to the economy of the US. The failure of the politicians to resolve it is ALREADY having an adverse impact: companies are DELAYING capital expenditures, companies are NOT hiring more workers, consumers in the middle class are NOT spending to the degree that they would ordinarily, the stock market has already taken a hit on the mere suggestion that the fiscal cliff will not be resolved, and so on.
And this is only the beginning. If, in fact, taxes do rise for the middle class, the US economy will undeniably enter a severe recession, and, over time, possibly a depression.
The fiscal cliff is further exacerbated by the fact that NEITHER political party is addressing the core problem of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismangement in government. Both parties are quite happy with the fact that waste and fraud in government are continuing to rise to stratospheric levels. The only thing they are concerned about is which party’s backers should BENEFIT from that waste and fraud.
No, much better to focus on class warfare than REAL issues. Much better to focus the public’s attention on such things as what income level is the upper limit to qualify as middle class. And when they talk about cutting government spending, they’re really talking about cutting programs that produce real benefits, NOT cutting a dime of waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement. Like good magicians, the politicians of each side are very adept at misdirection.
Unfortunately, the public is all too willing to go along with this charade and song and dance. Ora Lee has posted one of George Carlin’s masterpiece comic diatribes on the thing called “The American Dream.” What Carlin has said in this piece is outrageous, but it is also true, and that is why it is so funny.
For a more subtle comic take on today’s situation, here’s a clip from one of the great comic teams–and one of the most unique teams–of all time, Nichols & May. Now, the focus of this piece from the 1950s was the quiz show scandal, so you have to know just a little about that to follow the clip. But that shouldn’t be a problem, thanks to the entertaining movie Quiz Show that was made many years ago. Like Carlin, Nichols & May are comicly hitting the public over the head on their willingness to be misdirected from the real issues of the time, but, as I’ve said, Nichols & May go about it much with gentle nudges:
“To those who do the name calling (tea baggers), I ask why? Do you think yourselves smarter?”
Paul,
Here is what I wrote about the Tea Party last year which holds true today:
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/09/03/the-real-tea-party-not-today%E2%80%99s-tea-party-fakes/
“I wonder if the introduction of the idea “fiscal cliff” is just symptomatic of congress not effectively doing anything until a crisis unfolds.”
Darren,
There is some truth to that as being part of what is going on. A second part is that people can get caught up at times with their own rhetoric. Grover Norquist re-defined all increased taxation to be inherently wrong. It became Republican canon and locked Republican legislators into being unable to deal with issues as they arose, limiting their ability to perform naturally as legislators. In the 1950’s for instance Everett Dirksen and Bob Taft were extremely conservative in its truest sense, yet they were able to compromise when necessary for the good of the country and not worry about primary challenges because they didn’t meet some arcane test of “party line purity”. This is not the case today and so the rhetoric and rigid political theory dictate the inability to respond to issues before they become crises.
My aim with this piece was not to present a partisan screed, especially because I think both parties are to blame, though for different reasons. On the Democratic side they bear blame because they allow the rhetoric to cast the issue to the public. They too pretend that we are on a “Fiscal Cliff” and try to use that Myth for their own gains. By being expedient about the issue they seem not to realize that they exacerbate it and make real solutions that much farther away. It was Ronald Reagan, who has reached Saintlike eminence to many, who said that Social Security was not linked to the budget deficit. Yet as we see with President Obama’s ill conceived last offer on the “Fiscal Cliff” he has foolishly added it to the negotiating mix. The end result is that both are parties are engaging in a charade that not only frightens the public, but I will believe it will add to instability in the market and derail ant economic recovery we are making.
“The continual growth of the public debt is going to eventually, if left unabated, cripple our economy just as it has done elsewhere.”
I don’t dispute your statement but would say that besides those alternatives I quoted in my piece, the “800 lb. Gorilla in our room” nationally, is that neither side will allow the defense budget to be called into question. This article below is one of many describing the enormity of our Defense Budget and compares it to others around the world.http://www.globalresearch.ca/more-than-50-of-us-government-spending-goes-to-the-military/18852.
We spend more on defense than the next fifteen highest defense spending countries combine, with Russia and China included in this list. Now while you can Google ample information on Defense Expenditures remember that will never take into account the so-called “Black Budget” that funds our intelligence operations and remains top secret to all but a few. Whatever the amount spent on defense is, it is certainly way above 50% of our National Budget and definitely about 58% of the discretionary spending listed in the US budget. Given that this country’s military might so far surpasses that of many of the world’s most powerful nations combined, why aren’t budget cuts for Defense on the table if we are so threatened by a budget deficit? To me at least this gives lie to the whole proposition and indicates the artificiality of this fiscal crisis. Neither party has the courage, nor possibly the power, to challenge our out of control Defense/Intelligence Industry. President Eisenhower’s valedictory warnings to “Beware of the Military/Industrial Complex” have shown his Conservative Republican prescience. Our country is in crisis because our political system has two parties that both represent the “elite” of this country, though they each “seem” to pursue two different views on how to govern.
Oro Lee,
Have heard the name Carlin mentioned here but yours is the first that I’ve seen. He had it down, nailed down, and flayed except for lacking a knife.
Must have more of him. Wiki, google, utube here I come.
A big thank you.
Comments from the flutter-struck kid, 😉
MikeS:
Timely, eternal and to the heart of things.
(I’ve already wrote the Prez and said to get off the stage with their “Cliff” BS.
The CBO part:
“The Congressional Budget Office reported that the Bush era tax cuts were responsible for 14% of the swing from federal budget surplus to federal budget deficit over 2002-2011.———————-
Considering that the recession, the buyouts, the rescues, the auto support, the Bush TARP, etc. were already underway when 2008 and Obama came on line. That figure should have its dates corrected which might give another view of what the other 86 percent was composed of. The wars as I understand it were financed OFF the federal budget, which added 2 trillion to the the national debt. You point to our response to myths, that both parties are happy with them and their effect, and currently no sign of change than trading our earned pensions etc. for a small tap of the rich.
THUS, there is no essential reason to NOT let the acts sunset into the cesspool where it came from.
To that I would like to see a tax on overseas money, Be taxed or have it seized as the product of a racket. Which is of course is what the the rich are operating.
How we force from such is the BIG question.
Having found the targets, the rich and the bought pols; we stand without both guns and ammo.
I come with nothing new, Worthless comment. But sitting with the audience and clapping my hands is not satisfying.
I must scream a bit too.
Paul, about whether I think myself smarter than the tea-baggers? The answer is (and this one will be hard for any tea-bagger to understand) yes and no. I am not AS smart when it comes to being cagey, manipulative, opportunistic and coercive. But I am smarter by far when it comes to looking at any situation and mentally extrapolating to see what the real consequences can be. So when I see that perhaps I could get richer today by taking away something from a person who owns it, is entitled to keep owning it, and has no responsibility to me to voluntarily give it to me instead of continuing to own it, I also look at the situation and say, “But if I do take away from him simply because I CAN and he can’t defend himself from my taking it, what happens next year to him, and the year after that to ME?”
I look at how atrociously abused the lower classes are in this country and I realize that they are powerless and the tea-baggers can continue to decimate them at will, and I say, “Uh oh, that’s dumb. There will come a day when it will all turn into something that even the tea-baggers will not like and that will, at that point in time, be irreversible, inexorable, and exceedingly NASTY.”
So I’m smarter, long-term.
To those who do the name calling (tea baggers), I ask why? Do you think yourselves smarter? A difference of opinion and you have to make yourselves feel better by acting like school age kids. And to do this on a site that is all about our Constitution. Really?
Some people think our government is way out of sync with our constitution. Taking on roles that cost lots of money but are not allowed by the 10th amendment. Waging war without an act of war. If you would listen to what the tea party people are saying perhaps you might have a conversation rather than debase yourselves with name calling.