Monday, November 12, 2012

"Cliffs" sometimes mean climbing, not falling

There is so much bleating about the "Fiscal Cliff" that faces us at the beginning of 2013 that one would think that the end of the world is imminent. Maybe a calm step back and reality check are in order here.  Really.

First, everyone is clamoring for the President and the Congress to "do something."  Really?  Seems to me that they have already done it.

In order to insure that we got our finances under control, the President came up with the idea...and Congress voted in agreement...that Congress would try to find a kinder, gentler way to achieve fiscal sanity, but if they were unable to agree, that taxes would go up and spending would go down.

That is a "balanced approach", to quote the President, and in line with his campaign mantra.

Second, not all cliffs mean a fall.  I mean, try imagining that the cliff in front of us involves a climb UP, not a fall down.  That doesn't seem quite as daunting, does it?  It never does, although once you start, you can get quite a shock when and if you look down instead of concentrating on your goal.

But, we have been digging ourselves a fiscal hole for years, so I maintain that the cliff coming in January is one going UP and that we can choose to successfully climb it.  And in the process, everyone goes back to the tax rates that the Democrat party found so desirable during the campaign;  it would be nice to know that more people receiving benefits from the government were actually contributing to them in a current fashion even as the amount being paid by the government-proclaimed "rich" also went up.  Balanced billing is good.

Some of my Progressive "friends" don't like that, but my response is that my father really didn't like it when they started taxing the interest on his savings, insisting that he had already paid taxes on that money and that they were hitting him twice.  he insisted that if they couldn't try him twice for the same crime, they shouldn't have the right to tax him twice...it wasn't fair.  In later years, he acknowledged that expecting the government to be fair was a fantasy.  I disagreed then, but totally agree now.

Anyway, we all could save a lot of time, anguish and "agida" by simply shutting up and getting our climbing gear on; let's just get on with the necessary climb...ALL of us.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Founding Fathers' America died Nov. 6, 2012

Some of my friends and acquaintances insisted 4 years ago that America had turned away from the precepts of our Founding Fathers, that there was no going back.  I insisted that, to the contrary, America had rejected what the government had become and wanted to see what then-candidate Obama promised come to fruition.  True, he had no track record or identifiable accomplishments, but he spoke well and promised what every American wanted, so we needed to see how it worked out.

Four years later, we find ourselves with a President who is: a proven liar; a partisan, ideologue; an inept administrator; a Progressive Socialist at best and a fan of Communism at worst; and a voyeur rather than a practitioner of governing.

And America chose to keep him in office for an additional 4 years.

And it wasn't as if they had no choice.  They had, as an alternative, a man with a proven record of administrative and job-creating accomplishments in both the governmental and private sectors, a man with a proven record of personal kindness, and truthfulness, as well as an record of being able to work in the political world in a bi-partisan way. But they rejected this candidate in favor of a divider, a partisan, a socialist, and a liar.

Why?

Apparently the American people have chosen to pursue the illusion of "free" stuff over the reality of personal freedom with the accompanying reality of "consequences."  Apparently the American people have chosen a path of guaranteed mediocrity over the non-guaranteed right pursue ultimate success with the companion of possible failure.  Apparently the American people have opted for a guaranteed existence without the obligation of "earning" it over the right and obligation of self-sufficiency.

The Founding Fathers' America died last night.

President Obama will now exercise the additional freedom to act that he referenced to Russian President Putin.  He will continue to spend.  He will continue to ignore the deficit as much as he can.  We will continue to spiral out of control financially and by the end of his term the current difficulties being suffered by Greek, Spanish and other citizens in Europe will look like a minor pimple on the back end of an elephant.

And the American people will go on (most of them) with their lives totally ignoring these developments, accepting the reassuring blandishments of their President,...until the "free" stuff stops coming.  And then they will look to blame someone other than themselves for the catastrophic times that will have arrived.

My America died last night.  And my grandchildren will suffer for it.  I apologize to them for not being able to do more to stop it.