I personally believe that the fiscal cliff was a calculated move from the start. In 2010, Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives. This put the writing on the wall that Obama could be facing a repeat of what took place in 1994 and forced former President Clinton to moderate his goals and realistically work with the other side of the aisle. Obama is incapable of actual decision making or compromise. He simply states a goal that he wishes to achieve and relies on those beneath him to do the dirty work.
Generally speaking, any time Obama says something in public which I actually agree with I can be sure that his actual intentions are the polar opposite… Spending over the past 4 years has been an acceleration of the Bush era fiscal policies which in themselves jacked up our national debt significantly. The problem is that the threat of Republicans neutralizing his own fiscal policies could not be ignored, so a plan was devised which would take advantage on the predictable gridlock that would occur between a Republican House and a Democrat Senate.
The first goal of this plan was to create the appearance of concern over spending and debt, thus a ‘super-committee’ was created with the task of creating a plan to reduce the deficit. The fine print here was that should no agreement be reached, immediate across the board spending cuts would take place which would total about $1 Trillion over 10 years.
The second goal of this plan was to shift blame for the fallout to the Republicans. Most fail to realize that the Republicans have only been in the majority in the House of Representatives since January of 2011. For 2009 and 2010, the brunt of Obama’s fiscal policy had been enacted by the previous congress, so at best when the Republicans took the House in 2011 all they could do is attempt to stop further increases. The die had already been cast with billions upon billions of so called “stimulus” spending and the passing of the Affordable Care Act.
The final goal was to disenfranchise supporters of the House Republicans by carefully guiding them into a no win situation. The Republicans do not want to increase taxes on anyone. The Democrats do not want to cut spending or entitlements. Should we hit the fiscal cliff, the media as well as the administration will immediately blame Republicans for putting the top 1% ahead of everyone else. This will feed into the class warfare attack model used by the modern Left to redirect culpability to anyone but themselves. Should we avoid the fiscal cliff but allow tax increases – any tax increases – the Republicans will be seen as weak by their supporters and I’m sure someone has calculated the effect this will have on the 2014 congressional election cycle.
I have absolutely no faith in elected Republicans to stand their ground here. Generally, the establishment will play it safe (for themselves) and cave to the demands of the Democrats. I would not be surprised if the plan is already drafted, and conspirators on both sides of the aisle are simply running down the clock in order to pass a plan at the last minute sometime before they recess early next week. Personally I believe we should not only hit the cliff, but jump it.
Should the Republicans stand their ground and no compromise plan be made, everyone’s taxes will go up on January 1st as the Bush tax cuts expire. Discretionary spending will be cut by $100 Billion dollars per year over 10 years. That is the money spent by our Government that is not mandatory like Medicare – it requires Congressional approval. The debt ceiling is going to increase dramatically (some articles I’ve read say upwards of $2 Trillion). Now Obama is playing the long-con here. His goal is to both increase spending for entitlements as necessary to support the millions of Americans who either actually need them, have earned them as a result of retirement or military service, or have become reliant on them due to the piss poor economy and its effect on the job market – as well as increase “revenue” by increasing taxes on anyone earning over $250k per year to the tune of $1.6 Trillion dollars.
By pushing us to the fiscal cliff and returning tax rates to where they stood during the Clinton administration, there will be an immediate bump in revenue as all taxpayers are forced to pay more… however higher taxes never generate higher long term revenue. The wealthy (who contrary to popular opinion are not all Republicans) will find new ways to shield their income from taxes, and more businesses will quickly run for the borders with the yapping dogs of higher tax rates and the Affordable Care Act nipping at their heels. The unemployment rate will skyrocket along with entitlement spending to soften the blow for the unemployed and working poor while enabling greater dependency on those entitlements. All of this considered, the suffering endured – if played correctly by the Republicans – could yield majority control of Congress and quite possibly de-fang Obama’s agenda…albeit many years too late.
All things considered, if we hope for any real change to fiscal policy in this country that stands to improve the economy and persona liberty – it will only be done by embracing Conservative ideals and supporting politicians who espouse those principals. Not only will the next generation of Conservative leaders have to overcome a massive media machine hell bent on supporting the status quo, they will also have to overcome the road blocks placed by their own establishment leaders who continue to put their own interests ahead those of our nation. To be clear, 20 years from now this period will be lauded in history as the dawn of a Marxist era in the United States of America unless the testicles of Conservatism finally descend and we begin to try and make a nation that our great grandchildren could be proud of again. There is absolutely no way that we can reclaim control of Congress without true Conservative leaders. There is absolutely no way that we can reclaim control of the White House without a true Conservative candidate. There is absolutely no way forward for us unless we are bold, take control of the debate, and free ourselves from the shackles of Socialist ideology one voter at a time. We’ve fallen behind, we’ve not only lost ground, but handed it over to the other side without pause for far too long.
It’s going to have to get far worse before it gets better, and that may be the price we all pay for sitting back as the very ground beneath our foundation of liberty is washed away by the illusion of security so happily offered by our elected leaders.