If He’s Still Hungry, the Country Is Doomed!

The more I read about the fiscal cliff deal made at the last minute, the worse it looks. The devil, or God, is in the details. For every $40 in tax increases there was $1 in spending cuts, basically a rounding error. There was a lot of corporate pork for well-connected campaign contributors like the movie industry. I wonder how much it cost the algae growers of America for their subsidy? Since these subsidies were used to make the tax increases look less, the actual numbers were like this: for every $80 in tax increases on real people there where $40 in subsidies to various Fat Cats and Lord High Mucky Mucks and $1 in spending cuts, er, reductions in hypothetical spending…there were no actual cuts. 

There were also some stealth tax increases that we are only now finding out about. I read one estimate that charitable contributions will go down by $800 million next year as wealthy people realize that they can no longer write off charitable contributions, losing up to 80% of the deduction. 

I am still guardedly pessimistic that in two months there will actually be spending cuts associated with the needed increase in the debt ceiling. We will see if the Republicans are playing to their base by blowing smoke out of a body orifice. 

Here is what Mark Steyn said in his book, After America:

The prevailing political realities of the United States do not allow for any meaningful course correction. And, without meaningful course correction, America is doomed.

What Steyn means by this is not Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, but an end to those things that made America, America, and made people like Steyn immigrate. Here is Steyn’s waggish summary of the bill: 

A space alien on Planet Zongo whose cable package includes Meet the Press could watch ten minutes of these pseudo-cliffhangers and figure out how they always end, every time: Spending goes up, and the revenue gap widens. This latest painstakingly negotiated bipartisan deal to restore fiscal responsibility actually includes a third of a trillion dollars in new spending. A third of a trillion! $330,000,000,000! Fancy that! In most countries, a third of a trillion would be a lot of money. But in the U.S. it’s chump change so footling it’s barely mentioned in the news reports. Then there’s the usual sweetheart deals for those with Washington’s ear: $59 million for algae producers, a $20 million tax break if a Hollywood producer shoots part of a movie in a “depressed area” as opposed to a non-depressed area, like Canada. I’m pitching a script to Paramount called “The Algae That Ate Detroit.”

Sounds like one of the novelty songs in my collection, “The Cockroach that Ate Cincinnati” or “The Eggplant that Ate Chicago.”  Yes, these are real songs. The chorus of “Eggplant” even now echoes in my mind: “If he's still hungry, our whole country’s doomed.” 

I will conclude this post with a clip from the co-chairs of the Bowles-Simpson Commission on the latest deal. 

Comments

[Eric Anderson]

I wondered when good old cranky Alan Simpson was going to speak up. We've got so many czars, I wish they'd make him budget czar. But since neither party wants discipline...