Fiscal Cliff Notes: A Study Aid For The Budget Shell Game

ABM · Nov 26, 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/fiscal-cliff-...the-budget-shell-game-26083862-173528170.html

By Walter Shapiro

It was the political equivalent of discovering more Americans were secretly watching British snooker telecasts than pro football. According to a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, more Americans claimed to be very closely following the budget negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff than were engrossed in the soap opera that forced CIA director David Petraeus to resign.

A few possible explanations for these anomalous poll results:

1) A sex scandal involving a revered four-star general is inherently boring. 2) Americans mistakenly assume that the fiscal cliff is part of an extreme skateboarding competition, not shorthand for the looming expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and possible across-the-board spending cuts. 3) Voters have been panicked into believing that the president and Congress must solve the country’s financial problems by the Dec. 31 or we instantly become an international basket case.

In truth, the fiscal cliff is nothing more than an arbitrary deadline created by Congress to be replaced with a dramatic flourish and, yes, another arbitrary deadline set a bit further in the future. It’s a shell game created by political con men who have come to believe their own cons.

So, relax about the over-hyped New Year’s Eve countdown for budget negotiations. Results matter, not the timetable. But even without the Petraeus-related distractions, it’s hard to separate the real from the fake, the legitimate fiscal issues from the political posturing.

So here is my version of Fiscal Cliff Notes:.......................
Click to expand...

bluefrog · Nov 27, 2012

I like this line:

Fact: Everyone in Washington wants credit for tackling the deficit but no one wants to be blamed for causing pain.
Click to expand...

jlprk · Nov 27, 2012

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Fiscal Cliff Notes: A Study Aid For The Budget Shell Game

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Fiscal Cliff Notes: A Study Aid For The Budget Shell Game

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ABM Happily Married In Music City, USA!

bluefrog Go Blazers, GO!

jlprk The ESPN mod is insane.

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