i find this "fiscal cliff" thing to be totally fascinating. it's not just the fact that the "cliff" will, in fact, be more like a gradual slope, it's that the same people who are freaking out about the looming cliff, are the folks obsessing about the growing deficit. but the cliff, if it actually happens, would lop off a good chunk of the deficit--a total of $560 billion.
if you really believe that the size of the budget deficit is a major threat to the country and that the nation needs "shared sacrifice" to deal with the problem, then you should be cheering for that fiscal cliff to come. and yet, none of the so-called deficit hawks are, simply because the cliff involves a sacrifice that includes tax increases for rich people (as well as the poor and middle class) and a cut in the military budget. for some reason, that kind of austerity is never on the table. and that's what the fiscal cliff hysteria is really all about.
if you really believe that the size of the budget deficit is a major threat to the country and that the nation needs "shared sacrifice" to deal with the problem, then you should be cheering for that fiscal cliff to come. and yet, none of the so-called deficit hawks are, simply because the cliff involves a sacrifice that includes tax increases for rich people (as well as the poor and middle class) and a cut in the military budget. for some reason, that kind of austerity is never on the table. and that's what the fiscal cliff hysteria is really all about.
