Two months of arguing over 10 hours of savings by AURaptor

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Two months of arguing over 10 hours of savings

POSTED BY: AURAPTOR
UPDATED: Saturday, January 5, 2013 06:21
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Friday, January 4, 2013 6:37 PM

America loves a winner!

By Mark Steyn.

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/algae-382493-deal-fiscal.html

The politics of the "fiscal cliff" deal is debatable: On the one hand,
Boehner got the "Bush tax cuts" made permanent for most Americans; Obama was
forced to abandon his goal of increasing rates for those earning $250,000. On
the other, on taxes Republicans caved to the same class-warfare premises (the
rich need to pay their "fair share") they'd successfully fought off a mere two
years ago; while on spending the Democrats not only refused to make cuts, they
refused to make cuts even part of the discussion.

Which of the above is correct? Who cares? As I said, the politics is
debatable. But the reality isn't. I hate to keep plugging my book "After
America" in this space, but if you buy multiple copies they'll come in very
useful for insulating your cabin after the power grid collapses. At any rate,
right up there at the front – page six – I write as follows:

"The prevailing political realities of the United States do not allow for any
meaningful course correction. And, without meaningful course correction, America
is doomed."

Washington keeps proving the point. The political class has just spent two
months on a down-to-the-wire nail-biting white-knuckle thrill-ride negotiation
the result of which is more business as usual. At the end, as always, Dr. Obama
and Dr. Boehner emerge in white coats, surgical masks around their necks, bloody
scalpels in hand, and announce that it was touch-and-go for awhile but the
operation was a complete success – and all they've done is applied another
temporary Band-Aid that's peeling off even as they speak. They're already
prepping the OR for the next life-or-death surgery on the debt ceiling,
tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday or a week on Thursday or the third Sunday
after Epiphany.

No epiphanies in Washington: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that
the latest triumphant deal includes $2 billion of cuts for fiscal year 2013.
Wow! That's what the Government of the United States borrows every 10 hours and
38 minutes. Spending two months negotiating 10 hours of savings is like driving
to a supermarket three states away to save a nickel on your grocery bill.

A space alien on Planet Zongo whose cable package includes "Meet The Press"
could watch 10 minutes of these pseudo-cliffhangers and figure out how they
always end, every time: Spending goes up, and the revenue gap widens. This
latest painstakingly negotiated bipartisan deal to restore fiscal responsibility
actually includes a third of a trillion dollars in new spending. A third of a
trillion! $330,000,000,000! Fancy that! In most countries, a third of a trillion
would be a lot of money. But in the U.S. it's chump change so footling it's
barely mentioned in the news reports. Then there's the usual sweetheart deals
for those with Washington's ear: $59 million for algae producers, a $20 million
tax break if a Hollywood producer shoots part of a movie in a "depressed area"
as opposed to a non-depressed area, like Canada. I'm pitching a script to
Paramount called "The Algae That Ate Detroit."

In all the "fiscal cliff" debate, I don't recall a lot of discussion of
algae. But apparently it's essential to the deal. And don't worry, it's paid for
by all the new revenue – an estimated $620 billion over a decade, or about $62
billion a year, which is what the Government of the United States borrows every
13 days. But don't worry, that's a lot of algae.

We're already broker than anyone has ever been ever. But this is America,
where we can always do better – or, anyway, bigger, and broker: Under the
"deal," the federal debt of the United States in 2022 is officially projected to
be $23.9 trillion. That's in today's dollars, as opposed to whatever we'll be
loading up the wheelbarrow with in 2022. With "deals" like this, who needs total
societal collapse? By 2050, the federal debt will be $58 trillion. But you won't
have to worry about a United States of America by then: it'll just be one big
abandoned Chevy Algaerado plant.

Around the world, the only interest of friends and enemies alike in this
third-rate Beltway hokum is (to return to the theme of my book) the question of
whether America is capable of serious course correction – and, from debt ceiling
to supercommittee to fiscal cliff and now back to debt ceiling, the political
class keeps sending back the answer: No, we're not. For a good example of how
Washington drives even the greatest minds round the bend, consider Charles
Krauthammer's analysis on Fox News the other night:

"I would actually commend Boehner and Paul Ryan, who in the end voted 'yes'
for a bad deal. But they had to do it."

If courage is the willingness to take a stand and vote for a bad deal because
you've been painted into a corner and want Obama to fly back to Hawaii at the
cost of another $3 million in public funds that could have gone to algae
subsidies so he'll stop tormenting you for a week or two, then truly we are led
by giants.

But is that all there is? As the old song says: What's it all about – algae?
Is it just for the moment we live? What's it all about when you sort it out –
algae? Are we meant to take more than we give?

If you think politics is a make-work project for the otherwise unemployable,
then the system worked just fine. And I don't mean only the numbers:

On Monday, 300 million Americans did not know what their tax rates would be
on Tuesday. That's ridiculous.

Then, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spent the night alone in a room
with Joe Biden (which admittedly few of us would have the stomach for). And when
they emerged they informed those 300 million Americans what their tax rates now
were. That's unseemly.

Then, in the small hours of the morning, the legislature rubber-stamped it.
That's repulsive.

There's a term for societies where power-brokers stitch up the people's
business in back rooms and their pseudo-parliaments sign off on it at 3 a.m.,
and it isn't a "republic of limited government by citizen-representatives."

There are arguments to be made in favor of small government: My comrades and
I have done our best over the years, with results that, alas, in November were
plain to see. There are arguments to be made in favor of big government: The
Scandinavians make them rather well. But there is absolutely nothing to be said
for what is now the standard operating procedure of the Brokest Nation in
History: a government that spends without limit and makes no good-faith effort
even to attempt to balance the books. That's profoundly wicked. At a minimum,
the opposition, to use a quaint term, should keep the people's business out in
the sunlight and not holed up in a seedy motel room with Joe Biden all
night.

The fiscal cliff was a mirage. If Washington was obliged to use the same
accounting procedures as your local hardware store, the real national debt would
be at least 10 times' greater than the meaningless number they're now going to
spend the next two months arguing over. That's to say, we're already over the
fiscal cliff but, like Wile E Coyote, haven't yet glanced down at our feet and
seen there's nothing holding us up. In a two-party system, there surely ought to
be room for one party that still believes in solid ground.

But, hey, maybe we can thread all that algae into a climbing rope ...

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil." - Socrates

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Friday, January 4, 2013 6:48 PM

CHRISISALL

And our psuedo-Socialist Corporo-fascist post-Conservative Neo-liberal mess continues. Stay tuned for the resulting antics, folks!

Puppet Theatre Inc.

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Saturday, January 5, 2013 4:47 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
In all the "fiscal cliff" debate, I don't recall a lot of discussion of
algae. But apparently it's essential to the deal. And don't worry, it's paid for
by all the new revenue – an estimated $620 billion over a decade, or about $62
billion a year, which is what the Government of the United States borrows every
13 days.

It's also what about what the Superstorm Sandy relief bill would have cost. So all of the increase in revenue for 2013 due to higher taxes for the 'rich' would have gone to additional spending within the first week of 2013?

Not sure this is the way to reduce the deficit

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Saturday, January 5, 2013 5:16 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
In all the "fiscal cliff" debate, I don't recall a lot of discussion of
algae. But apparently it's essential to the deal. And don't worry, it's paid for
by all the new revenue – an estimated $620 billion over a decade, or about $62
billion a year, which is what the Government of the United States borrows every
13 days.

It's also what about what the Superstorm Sandy relief bill would have cost. So all of the increase in revenue for 2013 due to higher taxes for the 'rich' would have gone to additional spending within the first week of 2013?

Not sure this is the way to reduce the deficit

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

Geezer, can't you see that your govt CARES ?

Because, at the end of the day, that's all that REALLY matters, is that govt cares, and feels our pain.

( Yeah, right! )

While the rest of the country deals w/ 8% unemployment ( or more ) areas around DC aren't feeling the pinch, at all.

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil." - Socrates

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Saturday, January 5, 2013 6:21 AM

M52NICKERSON

DALEK!

You do realize that the deal was just a avoid the fiscal cliff and not to fix budget.

I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.
A warning to everyone, AURaptor is a known liar.
...and now a Fundie!
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=53359

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