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View Full Version : Fiscal Cliff Clarification



CattyWampus
01-03-2013, 06:09 AM
I don't for a second believe we avoided jumping off the fiscal cliff with this 154 page bill that was presented to the Senate and voted on three minutes later and then passed by the House without amendment. We gleefully jumped off the cliff long before this latest debacle that is credited with saving us. It's been a matter of simple progression to get us airborne. Some will say we started the jump under Wilson. Some will say we started the jump under FDR. I won't argue with either, but lets just consider what happened in the last thirty years.

In the eighties, we discovered that there was a cliff and we walked over to it to get the feel of just how high it was. We threw a few rocks off of it to just see how long it would take for it to hit bottom. We got us some strong rope, tied one end to a tree and the other end to our waist. We backed off the cliff and started our trip down the cliff face. As we reached the end of our rope, we came back up and declared that the cliff wasn't all that scary, but our descent was limited to the length of the rope.

In the nineties, we figured we could leave the cliff without the benefit of the rope, but we realized that there were a few constraints that might hold us back from a true free fall so we got busy and took away some of those pesky financial safeguards. We gingerly, but with great anticipation, took that wonderful leap into an empty promise.

In the aughts, we decided that if we tied a few weights to us like Medicare Part D, pushing home ownership by forcing and/or allowing banks to loan money to people who couldn't pay it back, and bailing out the auto and financial industries, we could really pick up some speed. By the end of the aughts, we latched onto ObamaCare, seemingly endless unemployment benefits, green energy subsidies and refined the art of crony capitalism while getting rid of anything that might create drag such as energy exploration/development and personal responsibility. We discovered that Newton's Second Law of Motion doesn't just apply to classical mechanics but to economics as well.

This latest legislation doesn't stop the fall. It doesn't even slow it down. Most people, even the politicians who pushed for it, can't honestly tell you how this bill averted the jump. They can't tell you because it's all a massive fraud forced upon the people who have placed their faith in politicians that don't give a damn about the people they are supposed to be serving.

The bottom line is that we've been watching political theater, nothing more. We bought the ticket and we bought the popcorn and now we're surrounded by a bunch of idiots jabbering on about how great everything is and how great everything will be. If you're one of those who clings to your bible, your guns, or your constitution, keep an eye out for the usher who will be coming by to ask you to leave the theater.

BTW, if you're one of those people who are still trying to figure out what just happened with this new bill, this video (http://www.fox19.com/category/240225/video-landing-page?clipId=8126332&flvUri=&partnerclipid=&topVideoCatNo=0&c=&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv) might help.

KSRBEvans
01-03-2013, 07:23 AM
I posted this in another thread, but IMHO it's the best visual representation of what the real problem is with the current situation:

http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nfs/uploaded/u1842/2013/01/YLchart1.jpg

And if you want to dig a little deeper into the spending side of it, this will make you throw up in your mouth a little bit:

http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nfs/uploaded/u1842/2013/01/YLchart3.jpg

This is why I think we're doomed. To get the spending in control and lower as a % of GDP, you have to get health care spending under control. And that will never happen so long as we have Obamacare. And Obamacare's never going away, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts and the 2012 electorate. So yeah, we're doomed.

CitizenBBN
01-03-2013, 10:31 AM
I've posted before and most voters and a few here don't see it b/c it's not in the doctored budget the media swallows, but health care is more than half of our budget. It's burying us.

KeithKSR
01-03-2013, 04:20 PM
All this legislation did was to buy some political capital for politicians with most taxpayers.

KeithKSR
01-03-2013, 04:27 PM
I've posted before and most voters and a few here don't see it b/c it's not in the doctored budget the media swallows, but health care is more than half of our budget. It's burying us.

Healthcare costs with the government involved will increase exponentially as we see quality of care decrease.

elanoP
08-23-2013, 03:47 PM
The fiscal cliff is here to stay in one form or another. Democrats said no slashes to entitlement spending, and the GOP declined to budge on raising taxes. However, a glance at tax rates around the globe showed that Americans had it relatively well, as tax troubles go. Read more here: Americans pay comparatively low taxes (http://personalmoneynetwork.com/moneyblog/2012/12/04/americans-pay-low-taxes).