Be afraid…be very afraid…it’s coming! No, it’s not the zombie apocalypse or an image repair PR tour by Mitt Romney and his entire family (if there’s a difference)…it’s…The Fiscal Cliff! A disaster of epic nature that has Irwin Allen trying to claw his way out of his grave to direct it!

Taxes will skyrocket! Medicare will be devastated! The economy will be in ruins! Twinkies will cease to exist! It’s the end of the world as we know it…and all of the cynics were wrong, the end of the world is indeed being televised (and just imagine how much they’re charging for commercials during it)!

We only have thirty-four days left until America will be obliterated! At the stroke of midnight, New Year’s Day, they won’t be celebrating in Times Square, they will be screaming in panic and rioting…which may actually be difficult to discern from the usual response to the ball dropping except for the increased number of people pulling their own heads off.

What’s so terrible is that we can see it coming, we know we’re speeding towards the edge of the cliff and when we reach it, the two inch drop could kill us! If it gave us a heart attack. Which is what the wealthy and the media out there are trying to give us.

They are pointing at a pit bull puppy and screaming at us to fear for our lives because it’s a pit bull and it could tear us apart. However, the truth is, it isn’t a big dangerous thing at this point in time, it would take a lot of time to pass before it grew into a legitimate threat…but don’t let that stand in the way of a good manipulation.

The propaganda around this “Fiscal Cliff” hogwash is amazing but was predictable. The media needs an urgent story to replace the election in order to keep viewership up and the wealthy need a scarecrow to instill fear into the masses to hopefully trick them into supporting a greater shift of wealth from them to the wealthiest 1%.

The reality of what literally happens on January 1, 2013 is absolutely nothing like falling off a cliff or a zeppelin bursting into fire, in fact, it will have no profound immediate impact on most Americans (though one might expect the wealthiest to use it as an excuse to tank Wall Street to hit the accelerator on the Fear Bus in an attempt to panic Americans into urging their politicians to give up on taxing the wealthy just to save their own nest eggs).

It’s no different from the Bizarro Cassandra role the MSM took during the election, “Maybe all the polls are wrong and Romney is ahead!” “It’s very possible for Romney to win the popular vote while Obama wins the Electoral College!” “What if Obama is actually a pinata and filled with delicious candy?”

This lousy corporate-driven excuse for journalism that we take for granted now, that speculation is equal to fact (and in some cases, greater than fact) should be seen as outrageous. Instead, many are lured into the false reality that’s constructed…even if they know better.

So why are Republicans and the corporate media so intent in portraying 1/1/2013 as Doomsday? Could it be because that is the day the Bush tax cuts cease to exist and the primary issue that they care about and have spent hundreds of millions in an election trying to win is lost? It seems clear that their greatest concern is that their taxes might go up 4%…which would be disastrous for someone making $100 million a year…after deductions, they may have to pay an additional amount that could have instead gone to installing a second car elevator…it’s an outrage!

There would be an impact on the 99%, they would have a bit less money in their paychecks which for many could make life more difficult. Though, it’s nothing that’s permanent.

The wealthy and corporations know what the real truth is. If a deal isn’t reached before the end of the year, the leverage shifts hugely against them and into the hands of President Obama and the Democrats. Then, the position Obama is in is that of proposing tax cuts! And if the top 2% aren’t included, do Republicans break their Grover Norquist pledge and vote against tax cuts?

Of course there will be a deal and even if it is after the beginning of the year, it won’t be more than a few months at most until it’s done. It is absolutely untenable for Republicans to stonewall  tax cuts for the 99%. The obvious problem is that Americans will all be upset as their take home pay shrinks suddenly and all polls show that they will blame Republicans…the grass roots anger that will grow against them will make any position blocking tax cuts for 99% of Americans impossible to sustain.

This is what the wealthy and corporations recognize, the best deal they can get on minimizing their tax increases and preserving loopholes is before the Bush tax cuts expire. Thus, the need to inflate the Fiscal Cliff “catastrophe” in an attempt to whip up popular opinion and pressure to make Obama and the Dems agree to a more compromised deal now.

It certainly would seem worth the short term Wall Street tantrums to allow the Bush tax cuts to die a well “earned” death first before finalizing any deal. Yes, there would be short term impact on the 99% but the extra tax money paid will be returned, a small price to pay over a short period of time for long term economic fairness and security in this country.

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KQµårk 死神
Member

Spot on analysis with you unequaled wit per usual AdLib.

Remember we got to this ‘fiscal cliff’ because the worst House in history put politics before country. The GOPTEA House had the best offer made to them by a Democratic president since Clinton gave Gingrich the draconian welfare reform they wanted. But because all the Republicans cared about was making Obama a one term president they didn’t take the deal. Thankfully it was a failed strategy and I think the current GOP will fail in this fight too.

I don’t know what the final deal will be or even if there will be a deal but all the GOP will do is make it as ugly a process as possible.

funksands
Member

Ad great piece and very good take on the dramatization of the fiscal stepstool.

While the austerity that will be enacted will be the equivalent of 20% of the crash of 2008-09 and will likely be painful, it certainly wouldn’t be permanent and would be a useful fire to clear out the political underbrush that has been allowed to accumulate in our fiscal policy over the last 20 years.

I feel confident that the GOP will eventually fold on the higher tax rates on higher earners, because they don’t care about them anyway. The ultra-wealthy don’t earn W-2 income anyway. Watch a trade of keeping cap gains and dividend rates the same while allowing income taxes to rise on wealthier taxpayers. A bad trade, but the one the GOP wants.

The only fear I feel is that if the entire stepstool happens, then the debt ceiling will have to be addressed soon thereafter. A scorned and stung GOP may cheerfully allow our debt to be downgraded yet again, having shown the capacity for pettiness over much smaller issues.

funksands
Member

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Kalima
Admin

Hi AdLib, great article, shame that so may people are fooled again and again into believing the fear mongers, especially when they have been proven wrong so many countless times.

In the article linked below I posted on MB the other day, Krugman believes very much as you do.

OP-ED COLUMNIST: Fighting Fiscal Phantoms

Does the fiscal-crisis story even make sense?

http://nyti.ms/QjYeHo

SueInCa
Member

Adlib

Great piece. I had read another piece at the LA Progressive that went into great detail about this “fiscal hill” Heck it is not even a hill but what the powers that be count on is the dumbed down Americans who know nothing and will believe without searching out info for themselves. They always have and they always will. That is why it is up to people like you, Kalima, Bito and KQ to build new channels of info. Sooner or later the big guys have been swallowed up and are no longer worried about any semblance of the real truth. The only trouble with bloggers is some do not try to find the whole story and that is a shame. I have experienced this on Daily KOS a few times and I don’t like being told only half the story because the other half is not going to be pleasant. Just tell it all.

The last bastion of half truths showed their true colors during this election season, MSNBC, so there is not much on cable I trust. I still catch Democracy Now but that is about it and even if I watch MSNBC, I still do not take them at face value. If I miss something, someone is going to inform me and then I can research it for myself.

kesmarn
Admin

Hear! Hear! AdLib! The 99% really have darn little left to lose in this game of chicken. Something the 1%ers should have thought of before they plundered what little wealth the middle class had managed to accumulate.

Wasn’t it in “Julius Caesar” that Shakespeare had a character who issued a warning about people with that “lean and hungry look”? “Such men are dangerous…”

Why wouldn’t they be?

In an attempt to motivate myself to de-clutter, I’ve been watching old episodes of the TV show “Hoarders.” It’s always interesting when the clean up crew comes across something like an old Kool-Whip container, minus the lid, and wants to throw it out. The hoarder’s face will pucker in extreme anxiety as he/she tries to imagine life without the precious Kool-Whip container. In the end it’s “no.” Can’t live without it. It’s as though, if that one little item is lost, it’s the same as losing everything.

I think the very wealthy are like that. Even though they would never miss that little 4% of their bloated incomes in reality, they panic at the mere thought of losing anything at all. If a little bit is gone, it’s ALL gone — to them.

The only difference between the two scenarios is that the people on “Hoarders” are guaranteed psychiatric help.

So — with you — I say: “Full speed ahead. Roll right on over that cliff.” Due to the weird optical illusion that wealth creates, “bottom” is a lot closer to “us” than it is to them.

SueInCa
Member

Exactly Kes. I also hear that Reid is about to hit the nuclear option button. We shall see, but I think many in Congress are just as bad as the 1% in trying to “fool” the rest of us. Like you said, our fall is much shorter than theirs.

I say let it expire, Republicans were counting on being in power to fix this and that is why they told us “this election is the most important of your life”. Trouble is we all listened and the choice to lead us into change was President Obama. The Republicans lost on so many levels during this election. Could not happen to nicer obstructionist people.