BREIBART.COM
This afternoon, in one of the more bizarre appearances of his presidency, Barack Obama gave a televised address to a room full of supporters on the "fiscal cliff." He broke no news, but mocked Congress, and hinted at future tax hikes. Observers worried that he may have deliberately scuttled a potential agreement.
Even though he has come off his last campaign for political office, President Obama acted like a candidate on the campaign trail--one prepared to use whatever political capital he had accumulated to take shots at the opposition in Congress at the very moment leaders from both sides are trying to work together.
Less a President, Obama behaved more like an ESPN talking-head making fun of RG III's knee injury.
Obama's address, which you can watch below, was held basically to announce that some other people are working on solving the "fiscal cliff" crisis. They are close, Obama reported, but they aren't quite there yet. He then proceeded to make some jokes about Congress, to warm applause from his selected audience. Smug doesn't come close to capturing the true nature of his tone.
What Obama's presser did reveal, however, was that never-ending tax hikes are on the table for the next four years. Obama said that, beyond any deal Congress may reach on the "fiscal cliff", we will have to take further steps to address our debt and deficit. That is obviously true, as any possible deal won't really deal with spending cuts. But, Obama said that, going forward, we will have to continue to have a "balanced" approach and ask the wealthy to contribute more.
Obama said he will continue to ask for "shared sacrifice" for "as long as I'm President. And, I'm going to be President for four more years." Tellingly, this "sacrifice" always includes more taxes, rather than cuts in spending.
To anyone who wondered whether Obama wanted the "cliff" talks to fail, this afternoon's presser provided the answer. If the GOP thinks it can cede some ground on taxes and then move on to debating spending, Obama, this afternoon, put that notion to rest. Obama will treat ALL future talks on deficit reduction as opportunities to increase taxes. Anything the GOP agrees to in the next 24 hours is simply a down-payment on what Obama wants.
I have long noted that repealing the Bush-era tax cuts doesn't come anywhere close to plugging our deficit. Obama, today, agreed with that. He signaled that, as long as he's President, further tax hikes will always be on the table. In doing so, he undermined all the work that's been done in Congress this weekend.
Obama may have just scuttled any real "fiscal cliff" deal.
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BEE STING'S NOTE:
and now, an interesting commentary with chart about the "fiscal cliff", posted to my FB:
If you want to know why the "fiscal cliff" and "tax and cut" debate ignores 95.59% of what is destroying America, then read on, because your favorite news source is not reporting the truth!! This is the most important post you will read today!! Please, New York Times or Harvard Rhodes Scholar economist, please try and refute this piece!! The attempt is to educate!! It is the truth that most voters do not understand!! To save the country from two party tyranny in Washington D.C. will require that a large percentage of voters understand what is written here!! Please trust that even your favorite politician and of course media are not educating you on the facts that follow!! Every year there are automatic increases built into the system for government growth!! The cut debate is just a slight decrease in the rate of growth, and they call it a cut, but its continued government growth, get it!! The tax debate is miniscule!! They will go up, slightly above what they already get every year anyway in revenue (taxes), about $2.5 trillion!! So the increase in taxes of maybe in the neighborhood of $1.2 trillion over ten years amounts to increasing taxes $120 billion/year!! Its nothing, taking what they already get every year from $2.5 trillion to $2.62 trillion/year!! Please understand this my friends!! The tax and cut debate is meaningless!! The "fiscal cliff" and "tax and cut debate" as scripted by media and politicians is just prime time theater, and about as important to the survival of the country as your favorite sitcom!! So in review there are no cuts in the current debate, and the tax increase debate in the paradigm where they already get $2.5 trillion in tax revenue every year anyway, is meaningless!! The big money, the issue destroying the country, the money that dwarfs everything currently being discussed, the money media and politicians do not want to talk about is the borrowing and counterfeiting!! During the time this stupid debate has progressed, both parties in government have been spending not only the dollar of revenue they receive, but also more than another dollar they get too!! That dollar is a combination of borrowed money, and federal reserve bank printing out of thin air!! So look at it this way!! Every year government spends the $2.5 trillion in revenue (tax receipts) they receive!! But every year that isn't enough for the government addicts!! They also spend, based on the last time both parties raised the debt limit in August of 2011, $2.4 trillion new deficit dollars!! So far government spent in 2012 about $2.5 trillion (revenue) + $1.7 trillion in borrowed money (based on the August 2011 raising of the debt limit)!! But that's not all!! The Federal Reserve Bank and Ben Bernanke are currently pumping $85 billion/month of printed money into their cartel banks and government!! So here we have it!! Government spends every year $2.5 trillion in revenue (taxes) + $1.7 trillion of borrowed money (based on the August 2011 debt ceiling raising agreement) + $1.02 trillion in counterfeited money from the federal reserve bank for a total of $5.22 trillion dollars every year!! $2.72 trillion of that amount is placed on We The People's and future generations credit cards every year!! Are you getting it yet!!! So in review, lets just forget the current debate about cuts, because there are no cuts!!! The tax amount they are discussing amounts to about $120 billion/year at the most!!! Meanwhile there is no debate about what is killing the country every year!!! That is the $2.72 trillion of deficit cash above revenue being spent every year by the egregious incompetence and felonious behavior of both parties!!! The amount being discussed in the current debate, is puny, $120 billion/year!!! The amount being ignored by media and both parties is $2.72 trillion/year, massive!!! The $120 billion/year is exactly 4.41% of the $2.72 trillion/year that is being ignored by media and both parties!!! Put another way, both parties and government are ignoring 95.59% of the problem, the amount that goes on the credit card of We The People and future generations!!! Getting it yet!!! The Borrowing Limit (Debt Ceiling) fight will emerge within a few days, the money that government really wants!! The debate, to this point, is just window covering so you cannot see inside the disaster that is the federal governments house of theft, money laundering, borrowing addiction, and counterfeiting!! Real cuts will only happen when the borrowing limit is attacked!! You cannot cut spending (cuts) unless you take the money away!! They already get the taxes, and they want a little more of that!! America could take a dollar away form government for every two dollars they currently spend, within a few weeks, by forcing republicans to vote nay on the vote to raise the Borrowing Limit!! If not a zeroing out of the borrowing limit, cut it by 50% from what you usually raise it to!! Then next year zero it out!! If you want to see government at the budget table within a few seconds, we must force republicans to do what is suggested here!! There is no other way to get cuts or for government to even consider a budget!! Why would they need a budget when they control the money supply every year, getting as much as they want!! The propaganda that government will shut down is a lie!! Government gets, as explained above, $2.5 trillion in revenue every year to spend!! If they shut down it would be their decision!! There is plenty of revenue to pay interest on the national debt, social security, medicare, and military, with billions left over!! If, for instance, they decided to pay for their unconstitutional welfare programs and worthless unconstitutional bureaucracies administering them, instead of social security, it would be their choice to do so!! To save America, We The People must force Republicans to attack the Borrowing Limit (debt ceiling)!! It will be the issue within a few days!! All the rest of this nonsense has been bad theater!!
~ by Warren Gillette
