The last thing you'll see when we reach "The Fiscal Cliff"? LOL That's all BS.
The "Fiscal Cliff" is a meme started by a liberal news host that has been misused by John Boehner, right wing pundits and politicians, and the sold out mainstream press.
I wasn't sure, but I suspected when Lawrence O'Donnell started walking back his talking points of going off the "Fiscal Cliff" that he had been the instigator of the meme this fall. Otherwise, why did he think he could stop the BS?
Just a few days ago, I saw a clip in which the "fiscal cliff" was derided as something out of a liberal talk host's mind, and now I'm even more sure he was. O'Donnell has some pretty firm ties to Hollywood (having worked with the writers of The West Wing) and was probably able to get the rights to show the very end of the movie Thelma and Louise, I'm guessing, so, you can guess that it was just too fun to not use the "Fiscal Cliff" meme with the ladies defying the law and driving that classic car off into the Grand Canyon (as described by Wikipedia. I thought they were in Texas, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. Note to self see if this is on Netflix. )
But in the last few weeks O'Donnell has been trying to calm people down and explain that what is looming is more like a fiscal curb or even better a fiscal driveway, a gentle slope. In fact, though the right has adopted the meme and is trying to convince Americans to hammer on their representatives and Senators to AVOID THE FISCAL CLIFF EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE AWAY OUR SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, JOBS!!!
Yes, the GOP in their reduced power is wailing and trying to scam us even harder. There is so much wrong with that. First of all, Social Security is paid for by over 15% in taxes deductions taken from your pay, half from you directly and half paid by your employer --that is claimed every time business owners want to reduce their portion of that tax. As a self employed businessperson, I pay both halves, so I know it is true that someone has to pay the other half. But the right started calling it an "entitlement" years ago as if you're a baby crying for a free lollipop. I really can't think of better illustration of how
So 15% of a person's pay goes into the SS funds until he or she makes over 110k a year (this year). Many have pointed out that if that cap disappeared there would be no deficit in the SS funds for 75 more years. And the changes that happen when Dubya and Cheney's tax cuts for the wealthy expire will strengthen our economy by reducing debt.
The political reality of the fiscal cliff is to get beyond the end date of the Dubya tax cuts that gave so much away to the already wealthy that Dick Cheney was laughing at us because he was going to get so much from the government, and we peasants were going to be screwed. That is the real fiscal cliff. John Boehner is just lying about tragedy that might strike if we do the Thelma and Louise scene.
After those tax cuts expire on January 1, 2013, then the pledge that Republicans made to Norquist (an unelected power abuser) will be completely irrelevant because any tax cuts the Congress votes for are new tax cuts and therefore "the Norquist pledge" to never raise taxes is moot. (Norquist is just a tool of the billionaires who funnel money into the SuperPACS to be used to bribe Congressional and other candidates, but most of that was shown to be much less effective than they thought by the recent election. The fact that the GOP had to Gerrymander US House districts to get a majority there shows that people can get elected without them if they are willing to do the peoples' will.) Personally, before I'd give into Norquist myself, I'd hop into the driver seat and drive, but the political rality is that it's not going to be that spectacular, or horrible. It's just a meme that has gone wild due to GOP lies and power-whoring.
Score! I found the video with the last moments of Thelma and Louise on YouTube. I like how they work the music in with it. The video is small but you can choose full screen and make it a little bigger. Ads do show up on it, but click the x and they go away. They come with the video. Sorry.
Bonus: I have a video with the short version of the last moments of "Thelma and Louise" and then there is a lot of explaining being done about the new GOP gambit to talk Americans into telling their Congress members to vote for dropping tax deductions instead of raising taxes on the wealthy. That would be stupid and disastrous for honest charities, and home owners. Reducing the value of homes right now wouldn't be good and the home loan deduction is one factor keeping home values up, and what Grinch wants charities to have to close and stop helping the poor and the sick?
Picture at top used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user DaSon'e who has no connection with this blog or blogger.
Short link to this post= http://x.co/qAX7
