NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Was Washington, D.C., holding its breath in December 2012, hoping the hype about the Mayan Calendar prediction was true and there would be thus no need to address the fiscal cliff and sequestration?
Alas, the world did not come to an end, and one more imagined disaster that grabbed the imagination of the gullible, as did global cooling and, now, it appears, global warming, did not happen.
So, the disaster of the “fiscal cliff” was averted by lawmakers agreeing to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans in exchange for keeping rates in place for lower earning Americans.
However, among other impacts, the reduced federal deductions from employees’ paychecks were restored, and all working people felt the pain right along with the “rich.” Ah, do we remember where the paved road of unintended consequences leads?
As this column is being written, we are facing the “Sequester,” a dire consequence of the 2011 negotiations on raising the debt ceiling, proposed by President Obama’s aides, voted on by both parties of Congress and signed into law by the president. The purpose was to force the government into cutting spending down the road in exchange for the raising of the debt ceiling just “one more time.”
If this “disaster” is not avoided, a bit over 2% of the projected increase to the federal budget will have to be cut. OMG! (Note to non-e-mail and text users: that means Oh, my God!) In full campaign mode, President Obama has crisscrossed the county “crying wolf.”
If this “disaster” is not avoided, a bit over 2% of the projected increase to the federal budget will have to be cut. OMG! (Note to non-e-mail and text users: that means Oh, my God!) In full campaign mode, President Obama has crisscrossed the county “crying wolf.”
All Horses of the Apocalypse will ride rampant upon our nation as a result. People will die in the street, children will go untaught, illegal aliens will rush across the border unhampered, our military power will be decimated, and on and on and on. Because of a 2% cut?
As famed columnist George Will recently termed it, the President is crying “hamster,” not wolf.
When did this sort of disingenuous hyperbole designed to scare people into submission and agree to pay more taxes and incur additional debt become what leading our Nation is about?
As a loyal American, I wonder what has happened to the promise to us as stated in our Declaration of Independence and confirmed in our Constitution: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed . . .
Go back and read the remaining words of that paragraph in the Declaration and decide if our current government is producing what we, the people, expect and to which we consent.