A leading Democratic senator has said her party should be willing to go off the fiscal cliff in order secure tax rises on the wealthy, raising the stakes in year-end budget negotiations.
“If the Republicans will not agree with that, we will reach a point at the end of this year where all the tax cuts expire and we’ll start over next year,” said Patty Murray, who was co-chair of last year’s deficit supercommittee, on ABC’s This Week.Going off the fiscal cliff would have at least three advantages.
The first is that we can stop saying "Bush tax cuts." Bush is gone,* and it's time to stop blaming him for the actions and problems of the current congress and administration. If we get no other advantage than simply taking responsibility for our own mess - or at least naming it after ourselves - it will be worth it.
Secondly, we will get some actual spending cuts. While the GOP is publicly most concerned about tax increases, I suspect that they are actually more worried about spending cuts, especially in defense. After all, we might have to invade Syria or something. While these automatic spending cuts would be temporary, Congress would at least have to agree on a new budget** and purposely add the money back in.
Finally, we get to expose the fact that the fiscal cliff was a stupid metaphor that never really threatened anything harmful. "We might get a recession." So what? The nation has survived dozens of them. "We need to keep our defense strong." Are you kidding me? We already spend 10 times what any other country spends on defense.
No, the real problem is not marginal rates or a tenth of a GDP point. The real problem is that our budget is out of control, spending $1.60 for every $1 in revenue. With 16 trillion in debt and more than a trillion more each year, over-hyped fights over Big Bird and 1% cuts just guarantee that when the real fiscal cliff looms large, when the actual financial hurricane comes ashore, or when Nemesis lands in Times Square with her ass-kicking boots on and a 50-ton bag of Alpo for the Boomers' demanded free lunch, we'll have used up all the really sweet metaphors.
* Win!
** Maybe.
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I am trying to work on a local level, but not in politics. I find worthy people nearby, try to teach them skills, and let them know where they can go if the SHTF. Certain snowflakes will be quite surprised to discover they are not welcome.
I am not going to burn my furniture and eat garbage. I have been mired in filth for 4 years and I find that I have little sympathy for New Yorkers.
I'm amazed. The buzz-words I'm seeing following this election are Revolution and Secession. Wonder how long they will last.
Hopefully not long. I'm amazed that even over on the Civil War forums people seem utterly unaware of the price of secession, especially unsuccessful secession. It doesn't matter if people think they have the right to secede (as I believe they do). All that matters is whether they have the power. As of today they don't.
I think the noise will die away temporarily, but will come screaming back with a vengeance as soon as our next market meltdown arrives.
All that said, I suspect that the next serious secession attempt will be led by Mexicans in California and New Mexico rather than angry white guys in South Carolina. Then again, I thought Romney would be the next president...
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