The Irritating Cliff

Sometimes one might think the danged world is coming to an end with this fiscal cliff business. Every time I open a news sources, there is another article about what it is going to take to avert the fiscal plunge that automatically comes at the beginning of next year with deep spending cuts and expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

This whole story frustrates me for a number of reasons.

First it seems to be just a giant microcosm of the mess of a political system we have. Fresh off a Presidential campaign where we heard all about desires to work together and such, the White House is already deeply embroiled in this mess with Congress. Both sides don’t seem interested in budging unless they get everything they want. It sort of reminds me of two of my former students battling over who gets to go over the Do-Now before class.

“Compromise” comes the rhetoric, but “hold firm to your position” comes the action. The result is the entire country holding its breath and preparing for what the media claims will be the end of the world as we know it. (Although this seems to suggest we may survive the even if we take the plunge.)

I am not naive enough to think if everybody was just nice to each other the whole thing would work out. I understand that a lot of this is just political maneuvering, but I remain frustrated watching the giant power struggle that involves a bunch of punting back and forth.

Second, the fact that so much of this is predicated on tax increases for the wealthiest two percent of our country. I mean seriously though House GOP? In this respect, I certainly appreciate the President holding his ground on these tax hikes unlike 2010.

My degree from what might as well have been a Libertarian Economic think tank still does not allow me to affirm the ludicrous idea that increasing taxes on the top two percent of income earners is going to plunge our economy into deep recession. Warren Buffet says you can tax the mess out of his wealth, and he’ll be just fine. He’ll continue to pursue investment opportunities even with, gasp, a significant tax increase. That seems to make sense.

Third, this battle is so disconnected from the plight of those who are still experiencing the worst of the pain of the 2008 collapse. Despite the rhetoric from the Presidential debates, the middle class was not hit hardest with the collapse. Guess who was? The poor. American’s poorest neighborhoods lost 91 percent of their wealth during the great recession. 

Yep. Ninety. One. Percent.

My guess is folks in the two-percent who are worried about the Bush-era tax cuts expiring did not loose that much. And by gosh, even if they did, they are still in the two percent. They’ll be ok.

This debate is sure to continue to dominate the news cycle during the holiday season. My request/prayer/hope for the President and Congress…

Please work this thing out, and then get to the business of doing something that has a larger affect on the 98%, preferably those that lost almost everything they own.

While they do that, I plan on looking for ways to ease the plight of those for whom the "struggles" of two percent are quite distant from reality: Kiva Cards and Grameen Bank

Join me?