Mark Steyn: The Fiscal-Cliff Mirage. Without meaningful course correction, America is doomed.

National Review ^ | 01/05/2013 | Mark Steyn

[SeekAndFind]

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 a while 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.

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping neverdem.

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping neverdem.

[P.O.E.]

Is it just for the moment we live?

Government has not only eaten the seed corn, they've dismantled the outbuildings and salted the earth.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[GOPJ]

Spending two months negotiating ten hours of savings is like driving to a supermarket three states away to save a nickel on your grocery bill.

If Republicans aren't careful it'll all be over before they smell the coffee....

[Pining_4_TX]

OK, we all agree with what Steyn said, so now what? Many say we should keep fighting, but it seems the other side has already won. Do we go down with the ship, move out to the boonies and stockpile supplies, or try to find some place on earth that is not in the same predicament? I’m afraid most of us will go down with the ship, because the other alternatives are not feasible.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Buy. American.

Now.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”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.”

In the case of this latest deal it wasnt just O who painted Bohner in a corner.
The ‘we don’t want nuthin passed into law’ R cacuas in the House joined Dems in rejecting plan B, and that plan ewould would have keep even more of the taxes from going up than the final bill without the spending.

After that Bohner had little choice but to pass whatever crap the Senate had him. If he didnt he personally would have been blamed for everyones taxes going up, and for doing it out of spite. I didnt see a single House member step up and say he wanted Bohner's job, so much for guts.

There really was no 'principle' behind refusing to enact part of the Bush tax cuts, the ones that rejected plan B called it a tax increase as if taxes would not go up after it was killed. And they never argued that we cant afford any tax cuts without equal spending cuts, they never would.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”And they never argued that we cant afford any tax cuts without equal spending cuts, they never would. “

With the exception of FICA late 2011, and they got their brains beat in for trying that. So they wouldnt use that argument again.

[sickoflibs]

Lets say some Republicans said they wanted to block plan B because they wanted all of our taxes to go up because there were not spending cuts in the same bill.

That would be very unpopular(as when it was used to oppose extending FICA late 2011) , but at least it would honestly admit that taxes would go up if nothing was passed.

But they would never use that because back a year ago Rush said that the idea that tax cuts must be paid for is communist.:

So instead they made believe that taxes would not go up automatically if nothing was passed into law. What principle is that Rush?

[ArGee]

How could they defend this if people started to raise hell about this?

Because I got a free phone and ...

... and what was the question again?

[ArGee]

In the case of this latest deal it wasnt just O who painted Bohner in a corner.

The corner-painting started two years ago. All that changed before this December was how much of a corner was left dry.

I don't claim to have the answer, but the last minute is not the time to realize your strategy should have been to never let it be a contest for who could give away more goodies or protect more people. You have to have a solid strategy before you move the first pawn.

Our people did not. Maybe no such exists.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”I don't claim to have the answer, but the last minute is not the time to realize your strategy should have been to never let it be a contest for who could give away more goodies or protect more people. You have to have a solid strategy before you move the first pawn.
Our people did not. Maybe no such exists. “

I have posted your point here many times as far back as 2011.

One factor is that many appeared to believe their own BS, that 2012 was still 2010 and Rs would have another big win. So why plan? Why think?
Rush REALLY promoted this and I saw him miciced here. I never believed it. Rush is still mimicked here unbelievable.

Government shutdowns and Debt limit confrontations have shown themselves to be difficult to win by the unskilled and uncontrolled(=GOP), but forcing Obama and Reid to extend all the tax cuts in the Dem controlled Senate when they ran on the opposite and won was an impossible task. They would never do that, esp for a automatic tax increase they knew Bohner would get the blame for.

My advice after the election was to pass a partial extension for < $250K and another one >$250K ( Senate will reject ) and send both to the Senate and immediately stop the rhetoric that the final bill will raise taxes if all it did was extend some of them.

They should of moved on from this automatic tax increase as gracefully and as soon as possible as to not suffer yet another humilation. In fact I posted a vanity here with this exact advice around Thanksgiving.

[lentulusgracchus]

(Steyn art.)
Obama was forced to abandon his goal of increasing rates for those earning $250,000.

---

Sorry, Mark, but you are incorrect. Obama will just reload people later -- the other shoe has yet to drop, although some liberal columnists like the JournoList RatWeasel, the infamous Ezra Klein (I've seen him on TV -- he really does look like a weaselly little rat, or maybe a zombie rat) have begun to tell people, carefully waiting until Obama had broken down Crybaby Boehner on principles, that the Big New Deal will require vast, vast new taxes, huge new streams of revenue from the middle class -- hell, from everybody -- and Ezra the Nasty RatWeasel tells us how to get it: the hated European Value Added Tax (VAT).

We need that like the Westminster Dog Show needs rabies.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2975911/posts

And the kicker is (see thread) that even if the 'Rats take ALL the money, they still can't make their Frankenstein social-engineering-and-welfare monstrosity work out financially. They will break the country.

[Dr.Deth]

Buy. American. Now.

Why? So our non-productive overlord class can bite the apple time, and time, and time again until all anyone has got is a scrap of the core?

Barter. American. Now.