And now, the Honey Boo-Boo solution from 2 republican hillbillies.  Why am I unsurprised that they keep acting like they won the election?  They probably still think they did.

The headlines,”…fast-approaching fiscal cliff” is marketing sensationalism at its best. This has been more like watching an entire movie in slow motion.

IF we go, will it be more like a prat fall, a fall on or into something soft or will things suddenly speed up comically?
Will there be wailing and gnashing of teeth?�
Or will we really feel it?
Stay tuned!

Happy Fiscal Cliff everyone!

I wish everyone would define clearly what they mean by “middle class”.  To me it ought to be based on the Median income level (meaning that level of income that one half of Americans make more than and one half make less than).  I know it isn’t anywhere near $250,000/year.  It is more like $50,000/year (fifty thousand).  I would think “Middle Class” would then be 25% of the population above and 25% of the population below the median.  Say $25,000 to $125,000/year.  Why can’t they just do something that helps the lowest 75%?  I mean for goodness sakes we are only talking about 4.6% in additional taxes for income over $125,000/year.  Is there no end to their greed and avarice?  charles a. bowsher

P.S.(It is hard to decide whether to use Median Household Income ($50,054/year) or Median Family Household Income ($62,273/year).  Numbers are from the Census bureau for 2011.)cab

Two words …. CARBON TAX!

That would raise the revenue we need, would create millions of jobs in a healthy way, and slow down global warming — the real cliff — the climate cliff!

Fiscal cliff – a Congressional exercise of trying to make a mole hill out of a mountain.

According to the Washington Post:
Now the D’s are willing to keep the estate tax at a low level rather than reverting to pre-Bush numbers.
Looks liker the Ds will take care of the 1-2%, right?

End fossil fuel subsidies and set up a carbon tax reflective of the costs US citizens have payed and will continue to pay because of the changes in climate and the environmental impacts of these products. Sandy, no matter the cause, and two years of droughts (=increase in food prices, uncertainty of cereal prices world wide) are harbingers of the increasing costs almost all mainstream scientists predict in the near future. We cannot afford such losses. 

There is a leak in the economy and it is getting bigger. Any economic plan grounded in reality must take this into account and address it. 

I am aiming to make all of my commentary today completely irrelevant…just like the current show.

I called in at 10:15 and said i would say that we need a carbon tax … and was on hold for 5 minutes and then told “I’m sorry, we’re not going to get to that this hour.”  A serious solution, not even entering the debate, once again.

I don’t know why we waste so much of our limited life time speculating on this government which is totally rancid and useless. It’s a tall order but we could be spending our time practicing new systems such as a Sociocratic system. http://www.sociocracy.biz/

The site discusses Sociocracy in business but the principles apply with any group, large or small and has proven results having been practiced in the Netherlands for a decade. We can start small, within our communities and learn how to expand into larger groups.

We’d be better off without the cretins in federal government. They have squandered our wealth. They kill innocents. They lie and conceal. They are more dangerous to our security than the antiquated terrorists they purport to “protect” us from. We’ll end up with nothing from this gang of vandals. We’re working for nothing. Everything is stacked against The People, even the press. At least On Point discusses these subjects and other critical issues. But it’s rare. Meanwhile the Hamsters keep treading. Nothing but a full-scale moratorium on handing over our taxes and paying banks our debts will have any effect. It’s money that feeds the beast, then we should put it on a diet. We have the internet now, and can vote on issues.  We don’t need politicians, we need competent administrators supported by a viable system.  

on point – way to close the year with yet another left-leaning panel.  surprised Jack missed this one.  why do tax payers have to support npr and pbs anyway?

Important points that have not been mentioned:

Much more important than the fiscal cliff debate is the monstrous unfunded debt that continues to mount. It’s the reason why entitlements have to be addressed, there’s no amount of magical thinking that can avoid this.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2012/12/28/mort-zuckerman-brace-for-an-avalanche-of-unfunded-debt

“The greatest fiscal challenge to the U.S. government is not just its
annual deficit but its total liabilities. Our federal balance sheet does
not include the unfunded social insurance obligations of Medicare,
Social Security, and the future retirement benefits of federal
employees. Only in the small print of the financial statements do you
get some idea of the enormous size of the unfunded commitments. Today
the estimated unfunded total is more than $87 trillion, or 550 percent
of our GDP. And the debt per household is more than 10 times the median
family income.

The public doesn’t know about these awesome liabilities because the
totals appear only in actuarial estimates. As Chris Cox, former chairman
of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Bill Archer, former
chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, recently noted in the Wall Street Journal, the
real annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security alone is $7
trillion. The government’s balance sheet does not include any of these
unfunded obligations but focuses on the current year deficits and the
accumulated national debt. Cox and Archer reported that the annual
budget deficit is only about one fifth of the more accurate figure.”
 

Man that caller’s commentary sounded familiar. I with ya bub:

“Why are we even discussing The Fiscal Myth? We’re going off because that’s the only way the culpable parties get to keep playing their game. The Democrats will get at least some of the increased revenue that we NEED while simultaneously giving the Republicans the shiny new whipping post they want. Both get to stay up on their soapboxes and continue their fruitless fussing while watching the rest of us circle the drain.”

I really do wish I had something new to say, it’d be nice to hear something new as well.

Boehner/McConnell should offer President Obama the option to revert to the Clinton tax rates at whatever level he wants ($250,000, a million, whatever he chooses), paired with a spending level that is so high that it is “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic” (President Obama’s words), i.e., the FY2007 Bush spending level.  The country would get $80 billion or so additional revenue, and annual spending would be a trillion dollars less.

My comment on 11/7, the day after the election has proved correct; there will be no vote tonight, over the cliff we go:

“The GPS is now set; next stop, about 50ft past the fiscal cliff, and a long way down.”First-off, if this is a cliff, what is 120% going on 200% debt-to-GDP? This is more like a fiscal pot hole compare to what’s coming. In the end, I side with Howard Dean on this one, which is not a frequent occurrence. The cliff is the only way we’ll ever get meaningful defense-spending cuts. And further, the American people have voted for expansive central government with both Bush and Obama; let’s GD pay for it!

Wait a minute–what??  Babington just said that Mourdock didn’t get re-elected for “other items?”  Like, justifying RAPE??  How do you let something like get a pass?????

I came away from Obama’s presser convinced he wants the cliff. No one is that arrogant and spiteful. He was baiting Republicans to walk. It’s what he wants. Tax hikes for every American is a liberal dream.