When I was a kid, I couldn't wait to grow up and be an adult. This sh!t is not what I expected.
- "Robert E. Lee was offered easier terms at Appomattox, and he lost the Civil War, " Charles Krauthammer on the terms offered by the Democrats regarding "fiscal cliff" negotiations. And he's right.
- The White House is still seeking $1.6T in new taxes. In addition, one of their key provisions, is a $50 billion stimulus package. Yo! If $800 million in stimulus didn't work, what makes anyone think another $50B will work? Also, the White House is offering spending cuts---but down the road. In other words, they want us to believe in yet another promise.
- Having said this, all parties are to blame for this mess we're in. Obama and Congress created this fiscal cliff when they were both unable to come up with a plan to take on the $16T debt in 2011 (Recall all the rhetoric then about, "kicking the can down the road." Well, at the end of that road is a big, friggin cliff).
- So what happens if we go over that cliff?Bush tax cuts expire. Payroll tax holidays end. More Americans will be hit with the alternative minimum tax. And a number of corporate tax breaks expire. Spending cuts will be felt largely by Defense. Moreover, there will be lower payment to Medicare providers and expanded unemployment insurance will end (no more 99 weeks).
- Add ObamaCare costs and uncertainty to this mix, and you see why companies are nervous.
- Quite frankly, if both parties were serious about avoiding the fiscal cliff, they would admit the truth and it's this (lean in, I'll have to whisper this in your ear): everyone should be taxed not only the rich. Right now, half the country does not pay any taxes. The administration's plan of taxing the rich will not significantly increase revenues. The taxes raised by taxing the rich will help run the government perhaps a few weeks. That's why both parties are hypocrites.
- Leno regarding Benghazi: "Very dangerous to White House if journalists start asking real questions."
- It really didn't come as much of a surprise to most of the world, including Israel. Yesterday, the terrorists,vultures, thugs and murderers in the U.N. voted 138-9 (41 abstentions) to grant Palestine non-member state status. Hillary Clinton's response was a good one when she said of the vote, "...the path to a Palestinian state does not go through New York City." But the vote is even more meaningless when one considers there is no State of Palestine. It does not exist.
- But the vote by the feckless U.N. does have one disturbing aspect to it: it rewards the concept of "statehood-by-terror" as stated so well today in the NY Post.
- Progressives loved it when the Eurozone was created 13 years. It now includes 17 countries. And today they reported their unemployment rate rose to 11.7% which means their "real" unemployment rate is closer to 20% (Spain's unemployment rate is a whopping 25%). Socialism's failure rates just continue to add up.
