Farewell Mayan Friday of Doom: Now On To The Fiscal Apocalypse

   The Great American Melting Pot is now the mediocre TV dinner served on a segmented tray.  This is not Sooners versus Cowboys on Saturday; demographic groups have been divvied up between the political parties, and have frozen us to inaction.  This administration has not been divisive.  Guillotines, IEDs, and my carving knife are a few other things that are not divisive, at least in the sense that we use “not divisive” in today’s political clime.  When the White House conducts a survey on its website and a participant cannot identify as ‘male,’ ‘white,’ or ‘European,’ that is not screaming "inclusivity", nor is it even stating the collection of demographics.  It is divisive.  It is almost impossible to turn around without somebody being grouped by exclusion, making every other choice its own group.  We may well be about to reap what we have sown as we prepare to plunge into the fiscal abyss.  (You’ll forgive me that I’m not entirely sure of the geography, and cliff just seems over used at this point.)

   There are actually multiple issues at play here which, for obvious reasons Democrats want to obscure, and for unknown reasons, Republicans allow.  The first is the failure to pass a budget since 2009 even though it is required annually by the Constitution.  The second is the Budget Sequestration that was tied to the last continuing resolution.  For those of you that are wondering, a continuing resolution is a budget cop out.  It says we can’t do the job you hired us for so we are just going to use the last budget numbers we passed.  The sequestration brain child said that if a bi-partisan “super” (adjective used very loosely, I assume) committee could not reach a decision in cuts then every government agency would take the same cut across the board, in this case 10%.  Apparently, the GOP thought that was an ultimatum, but brier fox thought the briar patch was a threat.  Finally, there is the debt ceiling that was extended to $16,000,000,000,000.00, or what the VP may consider a big f’ing number.  In fact, numbers that large inspired scientific notation, but were believed to be used for things like the distance between celestial bodies, not the country’s credit card bill.  Maybe some other time we can address how the government steals from the poor when the Fed prints money and inflation occurs, making everyone’s savings virtually worthless.

   The first ones to blame are the Republicans for perhaps the most idiotic ultimatum ever.  The proposal of the automatic cuts they chose are the equivalent of Osama Bin Laden walking up on September 12, 2001, putting a gun to his own head and stating, “if you don’t go against all your core principles right now, I’ll shoot myself.”  Oh gee, let me think.  It might have had some teeth right up until they kicked the whole debt-ceiling can down the road past the election.  And, by the way, that little disaster is back (but that is yet another issue).  Which ones actually thought the Democrats were going to be concerned about Defense cuts, whether they should be or not?  While it should not be a surprise that they jumped at this offer, this was signed into law.  If the Democrats really cared about the middle class that was a good time to bring it up.

   Then you have the revenue oriented Democrats.  They have been carping over tax increases on the wealthy so much that I’m not sure there are any thinking individuals out there that don’t throw up a little when it is mentioned.  They have even been so bold as to define “wealthy” as a combined household income of over $200K or $250K depending on the number of people they want to take from , and how honest they want to be about it..  All of this grousing over slightly more than a week’s worth of funding for this gargantuan government.   One does not have to be a math major to realize that there are still over fifty weeks left to fund.  When the rest of us are faced with this personal dilemma, we have to cut spending.  Seems like a prudent measure.  Wait…where are the Democrats with their spending cut proposals?  The latest argument is that they should not have to since it is the President’s proposal (with NO cuts).  Any spending cut proposed by the GOP will address Social Security, and Medicare and will be instantly rejected.  Which brings us back around on this self-licking ice cream cone; the Democrats are no-shows with spending cut proposals because there is absolutely nothing to motivate them to show up.

   To add to this Shakespearian comedy (or is it a tragedy?), in order to have any maneuver room, many Republicans bullied into signing the Norquist pledge are going to have to back out, opening them up to crucifixion in their next election due to a lack of integrity.  It is beyond being simply obtuse to make an absolute declaration in politics.  Action occurs with compromise which is something both parties have forgotten.  There can be no compromise if you have already sacrificed your integrity on the alter of some superlative pledge.

  So what is going to happen?  Most likely, many republicans will sacrifice their integrity for the maneuver room and hope to fight over that issue another day.  The proverbial can will get kicked down the road with some tax hikes on those households making (combined) more than $250,000 a year.  Which probably includes every married Buffalo NY teacher, unless the plastic surgery bennies don’t count.  Little else will occur.  Yes, that means the debt-ceiling will constantly resurface.

   Now, what should happen?  Elections have consequences and this last one should, as well.  The GOP should go out of their way to wrap this gift up just the way the Democrats want it.  There should be many questions like how it should be wrapped, where it should be delivered, etc.  Give the Democrats exactly what they want, the way they want it and make them OWN it.  For far to long the Democrats have appeared to be the diminutive thug from our elementary days, picking the fight with the biggest stud he can find only to be held back by others while screaming at the top of his lungs, “if they weren’t holding me back, I’d get you!”  You remember the obnoxious guy.  The one that found a couple of sizable friends that could sell, but for their intervention there would have been a blood bath behind the backstop at lunch.  Well, it is time to let him go.  Good luck.  That’s right, we should strap in; I’ll drive and, baby, we should go full throttle over that cliff, and everything else, until we learn to compromise.

   Come on, be reckless!  Nothing will happen.  Here are some strong indicators that nothing can go wrong with my plan.  First, the world has ended, the Mayans were right.  It is the ultimate in hedonism.  Okay, so they did not mean the end of the world per se, they probably just ran out of pin up girls for their calendar.  Before the election, however, not only did the President tell all those companies that sequestration would not happen, but that the taxpayers would pick up the legal bill if it did (remember they have an obligation to tell their employees they are about to get the ax).  If that is not convincing enough, I suspect that there is a vast sea of recently “saved” soft lady parts at the bottom of that cliff that will surely safely arrest our fall.  Finally, it would be outrageously amusing to watch this train wreck, like a Myth Busters explosion finale.  I want some high-speed camera footage of it too!