Having voted for Obama, I was surprised when he came up with his my2k idea as a Christmas gift for middle and lower class US citizens in the last week or so, basically a red herring in my opinion, focusing on saving $2,000 or so per middle class family in 2013 by not falling off the so-called fiscal cliff, requiring cutting a deal around Christmas time with John Boehner and his grim unmerry band of know nothing Republican tea party Grinches in the House, who are determined to make the poor suffer if their rich Scrooge-like sugar daddies in the upper class have to pay a penny more in taxes, shamelessly violating, so they seem to think, the gift their Santa Claus lobbyist, Grover Norquist, gave to them to sign on a snowy night before their cheery fireplaces, a pledge never to increase the taxes of the elite rich for any reason, to receive wonderful Christmas presents from the elite rich every Christmas.
How very sad it is today however these Republicans are forced to hang around Washington before Christmas on the outside chance they might have to vote on the House floor about something their fearless leader, Boehner, “negotiates” with President Obama before everyone falls off the fiscal cliff in January. Hopefully their staffs can supply them with plenty of eggnog and cookies to while away the time. Perhaps they have TV sets in their offices to watch football games or something to help pass the time.
There is no doubt that many middle class families would suffer some if they had to pay an extra $2,000 in federal taxes in 2013 because of falling off the so-called fiscal cliff—if the Budget Control Act of 2011 were to go into effect in January 2013 as currently written into law, entailing across the board spending cuts and tax increases for everyone.
On the other hand, millions of unemployed people are economically suffering right now in the US. Not counting the unemployed who have quit looking for jobs, the US unemployment rate is now about 7.7 percent; so, given a US labor force of about 155 million people, about 12 million are unemployed, based on this definition. On the other hand, counting all unemployed people, including those who have given up looking for jobs, the unemployment rate is about 22 percent, meaning about 34 million adult US citizens of working age are unemployed, dependent on handouts, shrinking savings and/or scavenging to stay alive.
The relevant course of action to rectify this problem in the short run it seems to me is for the US federal government to get significant tax revenue back from the elite rich and large corporations by raising taxes and cut spending on waste to provide cash inflow to create infrastructure jobs to jumpstart the economy back to full employment ASAP; and if all taxpayers have to suffer some in 2013 to make this happen so be it.
Preventing a tax increase of $2,000 or so in 2013 for middle class families, such as mine, would be nice; but if the federal government has to give up many thousands of dollars more of tax revenue per upper class taxpayer to prevent the $2,000 or so tax increase per middle class family, then nothing will have been done to help the poor, destitute unemployed—and the farce in Washington will continue unabated, until politicians eventually cause us all to fall off a real fiscal cliff into an actual catastrophe.
Richard John Stapleton is an emeritus professor of entrepreneurship and business ethics who writes on business and politics at www.effectivelearning.net. He is the author of “Recommendations for Waking Up From the American Nightmare.”
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Let’s not fiddle while Rome burns
Posted on December 18, 2012 by Richard John Stapleton
Having voted for Obama, I was surprised when he came up with his my2k idea as a Christmas gift for middle and lower class US citizens in the last week or so, basically a red herring in my opinion, focusing on saving $2,000 or so per middle class family in 2013 by not falling off the so-called fiscal cliff, requiring cutting a deal around Christmas time with John Boehner and his grim unmerry band of know nothing Republican tea party Grinches in the House, who are determined to make the poor suffer if their rich Scrooge-like sugar daddies in the upper class have to pay a penny more in taxes, shamelessly violating, so they seem to think, the gift their Santa Claus lobbyist, Grover Norquist, gave to them to sign on a snowy night before their cheery fireplaces, a pledge never to increase the taxes of the elite rich for any reason, to receive wonderful Christmas presents from the elite rich every Christmas.
How very sad it is today however these Republicans are forced to hang around Washington before Christmas on the outside chance they might have to vote on the House floor about something their fearless leader, Boehner, “negotiates” with President Obama before everyone falls off the fiscal cliff in January. Hopefully their staffs can supply them with plenty of eggnog and cookies to while away the time. Perhaps they have TV sets in their offices to watch football games or something to help pass the time.
There is no doubt that many middle class families would suffer some if they had to pay an extra $2,000 in federal taxes in 2013 because of falling off the so-called fiscal cliff—if the Budget Control Act of 2011 were to go into effect in January 2013 as currently written into law, entailing across the board spending cuts and tax increases for everyone.
On the other hand, millions of unemployed people are economically suffering right now in the US. Not counting the unemployed who have quit looking for jobs, the US unemployment rate is now about 7.7 percent; so, given a US labor force of about 155 million people, about 12 million are unemployed, based on this definition. On the other hand, counting all unemployed people, including those who have given up looking for jobs, the unemployment rate is about 22 percent, meaning about 34 million adult US citizens of working age are unemployed, dependent on handouts, shrinking savings and/or scavenging to stay alive.
The relevant course of action to rectify this problem in the short run it seems to me is for the US federal government to get significant tax revenue back from the elite rich and large corporations by raising taxes and cut spending on waste to provide cash inflow to create infrastructure jobs to jumpstart the economy back to full employment ASAP; and if all taxpayers have to suffer some in 2013 to make this happen so be it.
Preventing a tax increase of $2,000 or so in 2013 for middle class families, such as mine, would be nice; but if the federal government has to give up many thousands of dollars more of tax revenue per upper class taxpayer to prevent the $2,000 or so tax increase per middle class family, then nothing will have been done to help the poor, destitute unemployed—and the farce in Washington will continue unabated, until politicians eventually cause us all to fall off a real fiscal cliff into an actual catastrophe.
Richard John Stapleton is an emeritus professor of entrepreneurship and business ethics who writes on business and politics at www.effectivelearning.net. He is the author of “Recommendations for Waking Up From the American Nightmare.”