"Fiscal Cliff," Fall off or Stumble over

How can the people we elect to to the three branches of government do such a supremely shitty job? Or more to the point how did it get this bad? This whole 'fiscal cliff' is total bullshit. That we are in these desperate straits now at the cusp of a new year is the direct result of a last ditch bargain to get out of the entirely manufactured crisis of a refusal to raise the Debt Ceiling. Recall centrist Democrats led by Barack Obama and the crazed Tea Party ultra right nut case infiltrated political party that calls itself “Republicans” decided to getting into a pissing contest over doing something they had to do anyway – raise the debt ceiling so the previously run-up bills could be paid.  In what any objective observer would consider sedition the US House of Representatives, which is supposed to originate all spending measures, suddenly decided to hold the entire nation hostage to their deluded demand that Obama begin dissolving all the elements of the government that they don't like: social services, the regulatory apparatus and so-called entitlement programs. Of course this meant keeping their beloved bloated waste-a-thon Defense (read Offense) Dept intact. This position on "Defense" is an article of faith with this pack of chicken hawks. While ideologically demonizing Keynesian counter cycling spending on our bedraggled infrastructure, they are all for 'Warfare Keynesian' spending especially since a lions share of the defense industry is now located in their Republican controlled Sunbelt and Old Dixie States but it is also strategically spread out elsewhere.

So to reiterate this Fiscal Cliff debacle is a direct result of the GOP refusing to do what they did routinely annually for George W. Bush as he was running the national debt through the roof with unpaid for wars, expanding the size of the government (Homeland Security) and Part D Medicare. It was Obama's last ditch deal with the devil that created this “Fiscal Cliff” mess. The idea was that they create a outcome so dire that both parties would be forced to compromise, something so disastrous and over-the-top that both political parties' bases would be livid with rage. And furthermore the entire (nascent and  weak) recession recovery would be kicked in the nuts. The thinking was that the new Prez and a 'lame duck' Congress would be forced to put together a spending package that could pass the reactionary ideologue controlled House.

This agreement passed because each side was counting on winning the 2012 Presidential election. Now the Demos have won, the Repubs still want to demand their pound of flesh. The Repubs, whose bargaining position should have plummeted, somehow think they still weasel out a deal from Obama who they believe in his is his 'heart of hearts' is a closet moderate Republican (as was Bill Clinton.). No such animal as a "moderate Republican" now exists in the extant Repub Party. They call 'em RINOs and excommunicate them.  Their ploy as always is to maneuver the Demos into doing their dirty work – remember it was Clinton who finally cashiered AFDC.It was under Clinton that Glass Steagle was jettisoned. It was Clinton who balanced the budget by reigning in the social sector side of the government accounts.

As I write this a stopgap deal has passed the Democratic Party controlled Senate w/o the  Republicans  filibustering it, and is now awaiting a vote in the House. It delays the worst elements of Fiscal Cliff, the recessionary tax hike for the middle class while it levies a modest tax increase on the top tier Richie Richs (annual incomes over 450K) of 4.5%., and it keeps the Fed unemployment extension going. But  allows the big spending cuts to be postponed. In short it kicks the can down the road. The deal was cooked up with Republican participation (Repub Senate leader Mitch McConnell) so it will probably pass with enough bipartisan votes as John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, was probably in on it by phone. All he has to do is allow it to be voted on.  

We shall see ...

What will happen today? Quite a soap opera.

CPI Unchained

It was very disappointing to read that Obama's present offer to the GOP to avoid  'falling off' the so called 'fiscal cliff', contains a really ugly 'cave in' to the deficit hawks - his innocuous sounding offer to 'chain the CPI'.  This means that the Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) that kicks in every year based on 'official inflation', the Consumer Price Index (CPI),  will be lowered.  First of all the CPI, as far as most people are concerned, understates the real rate of inflation they experience daily especially with regard to expenses on necessities like gas and food, commodities whose prices fluctuate greatly.  If  'chaining CPI' will save the government money, it means that the computation for COLAs have to be smaller - so they are really unchaining it to inflation. Another case of Orwellian doublespeak.  They will be rigging the CPI computations even more than they already do. This means COLAS will lag ever further behind actual inflation - not good! This will be especially painful if inflation comes roaring back as some predict. Some of the poorest people in the US are the elderly who rely solely on their Social Security checks to survive. So as time passes they will become ever more desperately poor.  Also all Federal government workers, whose morale is already in the toilet, will slowly loose ground as their pay is subject to annual COLAs as will retired Federal workers. It's not clear who will and who won't be affected. Will the the poorer SS recipients, disabled veterans, SSI recipients be spared and receive a higher COLA? Will this lead to means testing on those receiving SS benefits? Not good!

Going on over the "dreaded" Fiscal Cliff would be better than a sellout especially if the Repubs can be made to take the hit for the failure to reach an agreement. Obama's offer already sucks and buys into the right's devious intentions, and the Repubs still hate it. They hate it  because 'their boyz,' the gazillionaes, will get their tax rates raised back to the rates they paid in the 1990s, a tax rate that allowed most of them to get obscenely rich anyway!!  

A lot is at stake here. Many are unhappy with this concession by Obama and offer alternatives. Will he remove this odious offer or will more concessions follow? Or will Obama stand up against these crazed maniacs?  We shall see..

Obama's present offer to the GOP to forestall 'falling off' the so called 'fiscal cliff' is a already a disappointing sell out.  His offer contains a really ugly 'cave in' to the deficit hawks -the  innocuous sounding offer to 'chain the CPI'.  This means that the Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) that kicks in every year based on 'official inflation', the Consumer Price Index (CPI),  will be lowered.  To start with the CPI, as far as most people are concerned, understates the real rate of inflation that they experience daily especially with regard daily necessities that fluctuate greatly like gas and food.  If "chaining CPI" will save the government money, it means that the computation will change and the COLAs will be smaller - so they are really unchaining it further to inflation. That is they will be rigging the CPI computations even worse then they already do. This means COLAS will lag further and further behind actual inflation - not good!  Some of the poorest people in this country are the elderly who are relying on their Social Security check to live on. So as time passes they will become successively poorer.  Also all Federal government workers, whose morale is already in the toilet, will slowly loose ground as annual raises and annuities also are subject to reduced annual COLAs.  At this point it's not clear who also would be affected and who wouldn't . Will the poorer SS recipients, disabled veterans, SSI recipients be given full COLAs while everybody gets reduced ones? What a mess that would be. Means testing your SS - bad!  In any case at this juncture in the negotiations it sounds  like a betrayal of  poor.  Again Obama seems to be accepting another Repubs bullshit premise,  that is SS is going bankrupt and that "entitlements" are the chief cause of The Deficit. 

It cannot be stated too often that Republicans only care about The Deficit when the Democrats are in the Whitehouse. The Democrats always become the fall guys and the Democrat President becomes the Janitor-in-Chief  assigned to clean up all the elephant shit the Repubs always leave behind. This long term plan, which is patently obvious, has been place since the glory days of St Ronnie. It  has always been to force the hapless Democrats to whittle away at the "paternalistic" and evil Welfare State.

Going on over the dreaded  Fiscal Cliff would be better than a sellout, especially if the Repubs can be made top  take the hit for the failure to reach an agreement. Obama's present offer already sucks and the Repubs still hate it. They hate it  because their boyz, the gazillionaires, will get tax increase going back to tax rates  that most of them got obscenely rich with anyway. Let's hope the Repubs under Boehner and his Plan B is so awful that Obama can let them take the balme for a fiasco they caused in the first place. The Fiscal Cliff was last ditch compromise to avoid a threatened default on US bonds engineered by the Repubs. 

 So as we go into 2013 and face the worse case scenerio - stiff taxes increases for every one including the rich pigs, all  government agencies get  brutal meat axe type reductions especially the bloated DOD -  and the Repubs get blamed for whatever hell breaks loose (we hope.) Of course it won't be that simple. Things never are ...

If you can't vote for Obama - just don't vote!

For those of us in California, now a solid "Blue State", our votes affect only the national total.  It's all about the Electoral College as usual. So this diatribe is probably of little relevance to you. In fact it now seems like it's all about Ohio.  I haven't posted in a long time.  There are already too many opinions and too much BS out there already. My inbox is packed with it daily.   But, nevertheless, I just felt compelled to make one  final statement before the election.

These presidential elections now boil down to criminally expensive TV-driven propaganda wars with each side trying to outdo the other in emotive nastiness as they a chase a sliver of poorly informed easily manipulated 'swing voters' who happen to live in crucial 'swing States.' It's a sorry spectacle and it's hella expensive. Thanks to a corporatist Supreme Court, unlimited money from wherever can now flood in, and has. So the Democrats are stuck with a 24/7 around the clock plea for bucks to counter the gushers going to the Republicans. Is a dangerous situation. The Senate could go Repub, the House will probably stay Repub. But will the tag team of Romney and Ryan weasel their way into the Oval Office? Remember that thousands of voting precincts are controlled by Repubs. This includes deciding how many voting machines are available in each precinct as well as managing the computers that tabulates the votes.  Much monkey business has happened in each election from 2000 on. But they can only pull off 'fast ones' in close races. Unfortunately many keys races are close  including the Presidential race.

Much has been written about Obama's performance in his first term. But even if you think Obama did not perform as he could or should have, please don't fucking vote for Romney/Ryan. If can't stand Obama, just don't vote at all. Stay home. The Republicans are very bad news.

Here are some well documented blunders by past Republican administrations:

• 1968: Richard Nixon (Republican) in his campaign against Hubert Humphrey (Democrat) lied about having a “secret” plan to end the Viet Nam War (sound familiar). Once in Nixon expanded the war into all of Indochina, and it didn't end until 1975.

• Then in 1974 Nixon was forced to resign, the only President in US history who has suffered that infamy. He was caught up in a swirling scandal that involving a failed attempt into break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Ultimately 43 staff members resigned or were incarcerated. His VP Spiro Agnew was also forced to resign on corruption charges independent of the Watergate scandal

• In the 1980s Ronald Reagan's introduced something called 'supply side' economic, which says in theory tax cuts will more than pay for themselves due to the increased economic activity they will generate. It didn't work. The massive tax cuts along side a large military buildup led to the largest peace time deficit in American history (yet perversely Reagan  remains a saint to the now devoutly deficit-adverse Repubs. Go figure!)

• 1986: Under Ronald Reagan the Iran Contra scandal broke. High level operatives in the Reagan Administration were caught selling embargoed arms to Iran (yes Iran was our arch enemy back then, too) and using the money to break Federal law and fund the anti-Sandinista Contras. Also, during that time other wars in Guatemala and El Salvador funded by the US (as “foreign aid”) led to wholesale carnage throughout Central America.

• In 2000-2008 (Republican) George W. Bush's policies not only erased the (Democrat) Bill Clinton's balanced budget but drove the deficit through the roof, again employing discredited “supply side' economic theory. The deficit under Bush was pushed well beyond Reagan's monumental figure with two unfunded wars, massive tax cuts especially for the wealthy and the irresponsible Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.

• Then in 2008 just as GW Bush's term was about to expire, the worse recession in 80 years began to unfold. It was left for the incoming (Democratic) Obama Administration to confront.

• Then from 2008-2012 Repubs in Congress preceded to make sure any conventional counter cyclical policy proposed by the Obama and the Democrats was either blocked (using a record number of filibusters) or watered down. Goal: to assure the economy would still be sour come reelection time. 
  
  

These are indisputable facts. What is so amazing is that the Republicans Party is even still in business at all and has not gone the way of the Whigs. They should have been laughed out of town years ago. Everything they touch turns to shit. Their main ace in the hole has been pro gun ownership (read: pro automatic weapon ownership) where the US leads the world in gun related deaths.  And even more importantly their demagogic, opportunistic and irrational anti-tax stance no matter what. Of  course everyone hates taxes, duh! It's like being opposed to mortality.   And even their moralistic stance on being opposed to abortion has now been exposed as being also opposed to birth control which essentially means they are against non procreational sex in or out of marriage. Their nutzo! And yet they have a good chance of taking over all three branches of the Federal government – legislative, executive and judicial.

Either hold your nose and vote for Obama or don't vote at all. BUT PLEASE DON'T BE STUPID. DON'T VOTE IN THESE DANGEROUS CLOWNS.