Despite my attempts to boycott the news for as long as possible, I have been unsuccessful at avoiding all the nonsense being thrown at us about "the fiscal cliff." That is code for "You better agree to huge tax increases or else . . . there will be huge tax increases." The projected cuts to most government services are risible; they are "cuts" to projected increases. The one Department taking it on the chin, however, is the Pentagon--the one thing the government is supposed to do, i.e., protect us, is being sacrificed so it can do all sorts of things it is not supposed to do.
My humble suggestion for the flailing GOP, here it comes: DO NOTHING.
Adopt the Obama tactic, and announce it as such, of voting "PRESENT." Sit on your hands. There are going to be tax increases whether you oppose them or not. Let the Dems suddenly realize they are to be the sole producers of the great 2013 bomb. Watch them scramble and weave and dodge . . . and begin to fight among themselves. Keep your powder dry until 2014.
UPDATE: I left out my one proposed positive action: offer an "extra special" tax on Hollywood actors and studios. Any actor, director, producer, screenwriter, etc. who makes more than one million dollars on a movie, must pay an additional 25%; any studio that makes movies overseas to avoid US taxes and union wages, and take advantage of foreign subsidies, must pay an extra 25% on its GROSS. I am sure the Hollywood crowd would be very appreciative of the opportunity to contribute more to society.
Back to my boycott.
I too am boycotting and advocate the Republicans do nothing and vote present. I will suspend the boycott to see Hillary's coming out party.
ReplyDelete"Present!"
ReplyDeleteHeh. Best idea I've heard in weeks.
Arkie
Let it burn to the ground. If the GOP had a clue, heck, they've had two years to rehearse this moment, they would walk away, let the Bush tax cuts expire and let Jug Ears own the wrath of the increasingly brain dead middle class and their elite Starbucks' libtard counterpart that both need a wake up call.
ReplyDeleteLet. It. Burn.
As excellent Friday op/eds by both P.J. O'Rourke (WSJ) and Marc Theissen (WaPo) suggest, taxpayers (those that remain, anyway) have yet to actually bear the financial cost of the choices that 2008 and 2012 voters have made. Almost 1/2 of the cost of the four-year increase in federal spending has been paid to date with borrowed money ($0.46 of every $1.00, or so I read.) And even the overall cost of that borrowing has been cushioned by the lowest interest rate costs ever (the lowest in MY 66 years of living memory, anyhow.)
ReplyDeleteNone of the cliff-avoidance proposals so far has substantively dealt with spending, esp. entitlements, and if the three big entitlements are not curbed, then all else is for naught. We cannot tax enough money out of productive to get ahead of the debt and deficits.
It's time for the low-information taxpayer to see what he hath wrought.
Let. It. Burn.
PS: and thanks, DM 2.0, for providing a bloggy isle of sanity in a media-land where the typical news headline often has me wondering if I am not living in some parallel universe. I visit here to touch base with reality, and have not been disappointed.
The long-term GOP elite on the hill are physically incapable of "sitting on their hands and doing nothing". By nature they "must do something" even when clueless as to what might help. Your advice is priceless, but you are speaking to dummies. And whatever they do will bite them in the butt. /shakes head/
ReplyDeleteElections have Consequences. Its well past time the sheep and Leftards started feeling those Consequences.
ReplyDeleteSometimes a good swat to the butt is the only way to get a petulent child to pay attention.
Re: Boehner. He needs to go as Speaker. He has shown himself to be incompetent when it comes to dealing with the Left.
The 90s regime used staged Potemkin 'crises', demanding, 'if we don't pass/restrict/ban/get it done right now this second all 'our children will perish and the world will end....'
ReplyDeleteSince that time have said following:
1. To understand what they're doing, view them thru a forensic lens.
See them as a continuous, ongoing, and relentless criminal
activity.
2. When the going gets tough, the strong do nothing.
Boehner said, 'this is his moment' when he won yet again? Then repubs should say, 'go ahead, make my day', do nothing themselves, and let dems own this miserable lunacy.
Do nothing. Let him have his way. Let him live with it.
Same as bloomberg demanding the president ban guns. Sure, that way bloomberg can skate to the presidency without that smelly glop called 'the man who banned guns' all over his shoe: he wants the president to own the political aftermath of a gun ban.
Some challenged bloomberg as CEO of NYC, saying he should ban guns. It's his pet idea? Let him live with the political aftermath.
Similarly, shouldn't repubs let the president own tax hikes? The president klomped into office with two massive chips on each shoulder, filled with resentment, a lust for revenge, and a desire to inflict 'reparation' by any means.
He believes that? Let him live the results. Jack taxes. People will surely love him for it.
I concur with your comments about taxing the movie industry. If I might add my two-cents worth, I think we should have a one time, very progressive wealth tax on all foundations and endowments (think Harvard, Tides, et al), then put a lifetime limit on tax deductibilty of contributions to foundations/endowments of say a million dollars or so. If Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and Theresa Heinz-Kerry want to fund their foundations, let them do it with post-tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteBy pretending there was a cliff in the first place the red-blue Hegelian collective can now point to the lack of any dramatic day after destruction to "prove" they didn't go over said cliff.
ReplyDeleteSince the correct analogy would be less a cliff and more the necrotic body of a cancer victim in their final days they will be well pleased to simply hide the smell of death and await the collapse of the current system.
I hope the black budget breakaway civilisation that has sucked all the money for the last 70 years is pleased. I assume they are, they've walked away and left the rump state in its current mess.
Fall of Rome II - Electric Boogaloo.