If nation goes over fiscal cliff, Obama will be sunning himself in Hawaii

[malamute]

Originally Posted by Apathizer

Oh, relax! This 'cliff' is largely media hype. They have to sell something just like most everyone in this society.

It's probably artificial drama. Ultimately, there will be some mix of moderate tax increases and moderate spending cuts, and the anemic 2%-ish recovery will continue, and life will go on.

Just relax everyone.

Well --- maybe not hype for those over 2 million long term unemployed who really don't want to have to get up off their tails and take a job they think they're too good to take. If the fiscal cliff happens, they don't get their free money starting January.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

And here I was thinking more along the lines of going over the cliff like in "Thelma and Louise".

Those two rascal-ettes drive into the Grand Canyon. So they drive off a plateau (specifically the Kaibab Plateau which is thousands of feet above sea level) and go down. So, if we follow your analogy, we are currently on a plateau reached following a long drive up from a much lower altitude.

And who's at the Presidential wheel during the long drive up from thousands of feet down four years ago? Not a Republican.

Now let's see if everyone is willing to actually share the GPS and do what's best for the country. And not be the kids bickering in the back seat.

[petch751]

"If you took every single penny that Warren Buffett has, it'd pay for 4-1/2 days of the US government. This tax-the-rich won't work. The problem here is the government is way bigger than even the capacity of the rich to sustain it. The Buffett Rule would raise $3.2 billion a year, and take 514 years just to pay off Obama's 2011 budget deficit."

The only reason we haven't felt the economic pain from all this deficit spending over the past 25 years is that we have successfully put off the paying the bills by putting it all on a national credit card (throwing away billions in interest). We might be fat and happy now, we might feel really good about ourselves willing to give so much to so many, but we are as dumb as a sack of hammers.

If there is an economic catastrophe all those (the 47%) who don't pay taxes but get benefits from the government treasury will be the very ones who are hurt most when the train wreck comes to a full and complete stop. They are like hungry, vulnerable baby birds in a nest chirping for more. But there will be no more.

[malamute]

47% of people paying no tax at all isn't good -- they feel they have no financial stake in this country or it's wild spending. They vote accordingly -- believing that a few handful of people can simply support the whole entire thing.

We need fewer people on government handouts so they too will be part of the productive class that works and saves money for retirement.