The President and his allies are sending America over the fiscal cliff
December 21, 2012 at 12:07 pm in News by Tea Party Patriots 9 Comments
Last night, it became clear that America is likely to go over the “fiscal cliff” of modest spending reductions and massive tax hikes. The House of Representatives, which has been negotiating with President Obama for weeks on a way around much of the “cliff,” was unable to pass Speaker Boehner’s “Plan B,” which would have kept taxes as they are for all but the top 2% of taxpayers and pushed for a small amount of spending reductions over the next decade.
There are many reasons for the failure of “Plan B.” Most of the media is highlighting aggressive opposition by Tea Party-minded Members of Congress, those few Members who refuse to compromise on long-held principles. Many conservative media sources are blaming Speaker Boehner, who negotiated from a position of tax increases from the start, never holding to the principles he claims to believe in. However, in all reality, the blame lies almost entirely on President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Before “Plan B” was up for a vote, President Obama and Senator Reid had already declared the legislation dead. The Senate departed Washington until after Christmas, and President Obama went on vacation. For them, raising taxes on millionaires in exchange for very modest spending reductions in order to prevent most taxpayers from seeing tax hikes is less important than political games. The President and Reid should be ashamed, yet they are being given significant cover in the national media.
Why should Americans care about the prioritization of political games over actual policy? Consider what happens if we go over the “fiscal cliff”:
- A major study in July found that several expiring tax provisions from the Bush-era tax policies and the Affordable Care Act would cost the country 710,000 jobs.
- As columnist Walter Williams pointed out on December 6, imposing a 100% tax on all households earning more than $250,000 – the “wealthy,” according to the President and Senator Reid – would keep Washington running for 190 days. And that’s only if all dollars went to the federal government; state and local governments would find themselves in significant trouble without taxes from the “wealthy.”
- An October 16, 2012 study by Congressional Research Service on means-tested welfare benefits for the poor (not including veterans’ programs) found over one trillion dollars in federal and state budgets are dedicated to these programs. This means welfare recipients are receiving about 20% more income than the median American worker.
- Many in the media and Washington are accusing Tea Party-minded politicians of causing the dive over the “fiscal cliff.” Yet it is fiscal conservatives who have led the fight for real spending reforms, as Tea Party Patriots has outlined over the last 12 days . Greater cultivation of energy resources, repealing Obamacare, enacting Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) budget, and other ideas highlighted by Tea Party Patriots would do a great deal more good for the United States than raising taxes.
- One of the most important solutions Tea Party Patriots has outlined for making the American economy better and providing more opportunity for the American people is tax cuts. The fact is that government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, yet politicians continue to say tax increases are necessary to reduce the deficit. Cutting taxes would prove how dishonest this is, especially if those tax cuts were combined with legitimate spending cuts.
As January 1 nears, the national media and most politicians will blame Tea Party-minded Americans for the fiscal cliff. Yet this ignores the failure by Speaker Boehner to properly negotiate with the President, and it ignores the willingness of Washington Democrats to play politics instead of doing what’s best for the American people. As we get closer to the cliff, let’s be sure we make the American people aware of the facts.
We need to have thousand’s of Tea Party rise up against Obama’s agenda’s. I myself don’t like taxes that he is proposing. It will put America in a depression. I am with you guys and prayerfully behind you all.
We could cut military spending by 30% and nobody would notice. That would save a ton of money.
The cliff will not create a depression but a mild recession lasting about 9 months.
It will not happen. The GOP leadership is likely to cave in Jan by saying they are now voting for tax cuts. The rate on the top 2% will be between 38 and 38.6%
Yea, we would also create alot of now jobless militarymen and women if we cut that much from military spending.
That’s true. The Military is like welfare for people who want to server their country. Besides, the American Military Industrial Complex is too powerful and cannot be stopped.
Obama, OBoehner whats the difference. First he denies that the Teaparty Caucus exists then he tries to purge Teaparty committee members. It’s the spending stupid.
More controversy means more power to the few. If we go over the fiscal cliff the American public loses more control. If we don’t the politicians have gained more control by raising their own debt limits (by the way how did this happen?) In the end this is exactly what Obama needs to get his agenda through, Recovery Act taught that. Were are still trying to figure out what laws are on the books. Right now I’m sure the politicians are creating mountains of laws to bury in the fiscal cliff proposal that will be passed at the last minute before anyone has a chance to understand what is in it. All the controversy is just a means to get everyone thinking that something has to be done. The media will call it an accomplishment, but in fact it will be another great scam on the American public. The only true solution is that the American public must create a bill, and pass through popular vote, that gives the power back to the people. Such a law as that the for every day the federal budget is not balanced federal employees salary is cut by 1%. If they can’t do the job they shouldn’t be paid well for it!
You have got to be F***king kidding me. The president says a bill is “dead” and it automatically is? Is that one of the magical powers that the Tea party thinks Obama has? Or does nobody here know how congress works? Well let me enlighten you then: your OWN side has to agree to a compromise before it can be submitted to the other side, in this case, republicans to Obama. The Republicans did not agree on the compromise they were going to submit, thus, Obama never got an offer to consider. And as for being given “cover by the media”, claiming that the entire news media is covering up for the president is something crazy people do.
Deadboy, I think the President has veto power.
This is quibbling over terminology – but – maybe “digging a hole” and getting “buried alive” by the 16 trillion debt is more accurate than “going over a cliff.”
A person has to be on high ground to have a cliff. None of the parties involved is on high ground in this deal. The GOP used to go into debt a bit slower, the Democrats used to go into debt a bit faster.
Obama has some kind of Star Trek Warp Drive to inflict the fastest, biggest debt ever anywhere in all of history.
We. Are. Broke.