If we go over the cliff, the reimposition of the pre Bush tax rates will broaden the tax base.
I’m not sure huge increases in defense spending are a bad thing. We live in a world where one EMP nuclear weapon, launched from a containership offshore by any number of nations or terrorist groups, can destroy the power grid and our way of life immediately as well as result in tens of millions dying of starvation. We are spending nothing today to counter the EMP threat. After an EMP attack our hundreds of billions of dollars of high tech military hardware and missiles will be worthless.
Much of the rest of military spending goes to having a force in place for the president to launch wars around the globe anytime he wishes. With the exception of 9/11, since WWII the wars we’ve been involved in related to our imperialist foreign policy, not real threats against the homeland. Even looking at 9/11, we could have dealt with Al Queda without a decade long invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to multiple surgical strikes to wipe out Al Queda we should have forced the Saudi’s to cut off their funding of terrorism. Just as with defending against EMP, that isn’t something the neocon hawks were willing to do.
I hate to say it but it may be time to stop fighting the losing defensive battle. Perhaps McConnell and Boehner should stop negotiating in secret behind closed doors. Stand out on the Capitol steps, outline the Republican plan in very specific detail including posting it on the internet. Then dare Obama to detail his plan. Let the media scream about the cuts resulting in starving school children and padding the pocketbooks of the wealthy. Stand firm and demand Obama lay his plan in detail on the table for the American people. If they stand firm, he will have to lay out his tax cuts with no spending cuts (except defense) and possibly actual spending increases. When Obama has put his entire plan in the public domain, in specific detail, go before the American people and say, “We disagree with the President’s plan and believe it is the wrong path for the country for the following reasons .. . . However, the people spoke in the last election. We must eliminate partisan gridlock for the good of the country so we are prepared to vote for the President’s plan as he has presented it. This way, we can get away from the partisan bickering and blaming the other side for failure. The President’s plan will either work or it won’t, and he and his party can be judged on its success or failure.”
The likelihood is the country will go into a deep recession and the Republicans can run on the message - “We’ve tried socialism, lets go back to traditional American values and economics.”
The alternative is the fools game of negotiating with Obama while he does nothing and blames Republican stubbornness for gridlock. On this path the end game is the Republican caving (like last year) and still getting blamed for everything bad.
I’m convinced the only way out of this mess is to let the American people experience hard core socialism for a few years. Too many young people have grown up enjoying the middle class lifestyle provided by their parents without understanding the work required to deliver it. The socialist state will demand an ever increasing share of their incomes to sustain itself and the economy will wither under the weight of government spending. Ultimately they will wake up and realize socialism doesn’t work. If they don’t, it is their world.
The big economic crash is coming. It needs to come on Obama’s watch and he needs to be blamed for it. Give him what he wants and when it comes he has no excuses.
I agree. When the Obomaphones stop working, and the checks stop showing up in the mail box the 1st of every month, the people have no one to blame but the democrats. They promised a lifetime "everything for free" utopia in exchange for a vote - and then couldn't deliver.
I agree with you..
but, let’s put it simply, so that the pubs in congress can understand it...
when you negotiate with yourself, you are the only one that will lose....