Avoiding Fiscal Cliff Not Great

There seems to be almost universal agreement that the decision to avoid the fiscal cliff by raising taxes a little bit on the very rich was not significant.  It merely showed that Congress could do something, not that it could do something serious.  It did the absolute minimum.  It kept taxes from going up on everybody, but it socked it to the poor as well as the rich, by raising payroll taxes.  So, working people will see their Social Security and Medicare taxes go up from 4.2% to 6.2%.  Arguably, that's only 2%, but as a percentage increase, it's an increase of almost 50%.  For rich people, the tax will go from about 35% to 39%, i.e. 4%, but as a percentage increase it's just an increase of about 12%. 

So Obama and the Congress raised taxes on poor, working people by 50%, and taxes on rich people by 12%.  We can see who pays off a corrupt Congress.  Obama seems less corrupt, but so weak and cowardly that he is virtually useless. 

Howard Dean is right that it would be better to go over the fiscal cliff than to have some half-hearted package to avoid it that just makes the long term debt situation worse.  That's what Congress and Obama did.  The debt will continue to escalate as they kick the can down the road. 

Bible Prophecies about Israel 1

Isaiah Chapter 8 verses 13-15

13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

And Ezekiel Chapter 6

1  And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

2  Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

3  And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

4  And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

5  And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

6  In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

7  And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

8  ¶ Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

9  And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

10  And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

11  ¶ Thus saith the Lord God; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

12  He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.

13  Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.

14  So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
 

America's Lost Greatness

As the debate about the fiscal cliff drags on, it is becoming clearer to me that the US has lost its greatness.  It is no longer the biblical city on a hill envisioned by Reagan.  Our leaders are no longer concerned about our nation, they are concerned about themselves -- their power, their wealth, their position,  No one puts their country first.

We are supposed to have a democracy that allows the people to choose good leaders, but they have chosen poorly.  Too many of our leaders are stupid, selfish, greedy, corrupt, or worse.  One of the worst things as been the capture of the political system by moneyed interests.  A few years in government are just preparation for making real money as a lobbyist, consultant, or businessman selling to the government.  Another real problem is gerrymandering, making congressional districts safe for incumbents.  The House of representatives should be the most in touch with the people's needs, but it has become less and less responsible to them.  Congressmen's main concern is keeping their donors happy, most of whom live outside of their districts.

So, it looks like we will either continue to run trillion dollar annual deficits, or we will fall off the fiscal cliff into a deep recession, neither of which would be necessary.  Economists have good ideas about how to avoid both disasters, but our leaders are not listening.

Why Obama Failed Me

I didn't want to vote for Obama, but between Obama and Romney, Obama was the better choice. I was going to vote for a third party candidate, but ironically thanks to some Wall Street Journal Internet test of political positions, I found that both of the third party candidates were too radical for me. I have voted for Ralph Nader in the past, because I thought he was a good, honest man, unlike the major party candidates. This year however, I didn't know anything about the Green Party or the Libertarian Party candidates, and according to the Wall Street Journal they both espoused extreme positions. I often agreed with the Green Party on economic issues, but not on social issues. Similarly I often agreed with the Libertarians on social issues, but not on economic/financial issues. I think the Fed has saved the US from a horrible financial debacle brought on by Wall Street, which seems to be run by some of the worst people on earth. I think they are evil, but they may just be grossly incompetent.

So I was stuck between Obama and Romney, both of whom held more moderate positions on both social and economic issues, but I was closer to Obama.  However, I am unhappy with a number of things Obama did or did not do during his first term.
- He did not end the war in Afghanistan, which everybody thought was the "good" war, but it turned out that everybody was wrong (except Joe Biden).
- He did not close the Guantanamo prison, leaving the US with its own "gulag" like the old Soviet Union. It's like having a billboard that says, "The US is no longer a free, democratic country ruled by law." No wonder foreign students are going home when they graduate.
- He continued the Bush tax cuts. These tax cuts have badly unbalanced the US economy, contributing to our running up a trillion dollar deficit every year. They are unsustainable, especially when they undercut financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's one of the main reasons Rumsfeld said that you go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want. The Republicans were happy to pocket a few thousand dollars in tax savings, although it meant many more troops would die in those wars because they did not have the best equipment.
- He did not try hard enough to get Elizabeth Warren approved as the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She created the bureau, and she should have been allowed to get it started. She would have faced fierce opposition from the Republicans in Congress, but Obama should have taken them on. It's possible that the big banks hated her so much that the bribed Obama and Democrats to desert her, too. I'm glad she was elected Senator, but I would have preferred to see her take on the banks in the bureau she created. Hopefully she will be able to do some of the same things as Senator. It will be interesting to see whether she gets on any relevant committees, or whether the banks will bribe the Democratic leadership to stick her in the boondocks somewhere.
- Obama did not give us single payer health care, i.e., Medicare for everybody. He have us expanded health care based on a Republican model that is a gift to the health insurance companies and the medical community. It means much higher costs that a single payer system would have meant.
- He has continued the Bush Administration drone strikes, which in many cases have killed innocent civilians and in some cases US citizens. This is like Guantanamo. It shows the world that the US is not longer an honest, decent, just country of laws.
I am hoping that Obama will do better in his second term. His first task is to do something about the fiscal cliff in a way that will reduce the outrageous budget deficit. So far, I am not optimistic. They may reach some sort of a deal that will allow us to muddle through, but will do little or nothing to redress the fundamental problem of the debt that is destroying America.