Cliff (Politics)

So the fiscal cliff has been crossed and while we didn't necessarily turn back we did attach a glider to our backs that should carry us for say... two months or so. On the whole I found the matter to be disappointing. Taxes are going up on just about everyone with a job as the payroll taxes are restored to just over six percent and for some, that's going to hurt. Preserving the other tax rates for individuals under $400,000 is nice, but I'm bothered by two things; the idea that $400,000 is now middle class and that real tax reform is once again an idea that no one wants to tackle. 

Look, the median income in the U.S. is about $50,000.... that's where the majority of us live. It's such a small percentage (really less than one) who gets to live at that higher elevation so to call that middle class really is a load of crap.  Republicans can try and defend where they live on this, but raising those taxes just won't impact the economy like that claimed. No real study showed that they would, nor the idea that those people are the "job creators" and if you raised their taxes that they'd just all stop trying to grow their businesses, close down and take their cash to the Caymans. It was and still is a ridiculous argument. 

Is the idea that the government is terrible at spending your money wrong, no. But there's no intellectual honesty in what they say when it's followed up by, we can't touch rich people or corporations for revenue and you can't touch the military when it comes to spending cuts. In truth, they're seeking what the Moral Majority has been preaching since it was founded, the destruction of the Federal Government as an entity, cut back to the bone and returning money and power to the states (and thereby the individuals.) It's a nice idea, but it doesn't work in practice. Much like that floated idea that after we cut social programs, even though many states have said they're not going to add any services... we can rely on charity to pick up the slack. That just doesn't work. 

Look back in history before our current medicare and social security... you know who was stepping in to help the poor? No one. In much the same when when you hear the right calling for fewer regulations on businesses because the market will force them to regulate. It won't. It doesn't. Especially in a market where such wealthy companies wield so much power. Before the EPA it's not like companies were being more careful because the public would scold them into not dumping stuff... they just did it, didn't tell anyone and hoped they'd never get caught.... hello Love Canal. 

Remember how great workers rules were back in the day? Everyone being paid a fair wage for a fair days work? You don't. It's not just because you are too young, it's also because it didn't happen. 

It's time someone called bullshit on all this. You want a smaller government? That's fine, but let's be honest. Let's live in the real world and look at how we address the real world problems and stop using rhetoric to distort the facts.