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Why The Fiscal Cliff is a Scam (Made Easy)

Why The Fiscal Cliff is a Scam (Made Easy)

December 1, 2012 SVadmin Comments 1 comment

Here (below), in a 9-minute video interview with Paul Jay of the Real News Network, Professor James Galbraith explains his recent article, “6 Reasons the Fiscal Cliff is a Scam.”

The deepest irony in the current situation is that the real, but slight, danger of the “cliff” is that in the long run it will further deepen the current recession by means of automatic austerity measures (tax increases and spending cuts), whereas the strategies being generally touted to deal with this danger are more austerity measures (revenue increases and spending cuts).

Huh?

In other words, the dominant political consensus driving the hysteria in Washington right now is that deliberate austerity measures must be urgently enacted in order to stave off the catastrophic effects of automatic austerity measures.

Do you get the feeling that something doesn’t smell right here?

Could this be another example of the dictum, “Never let a good catastrophe go to waste?” (And if the catastrophe doesn’t occur on its own, create one).

Cui bono? Who benefits from the fake catastrophe?

This is beginning to smell like that old campaign (put into high gear by Ronald Reagan) to turn back the New Deal by attacking what are called “entitlements.” And, of course, the perennial campaign to reduce the “tax burden” on the 1%.

I agree with Bernie Sanders (and Galbraith doesn’t mention this) that the only people who really face a short-term crisis from the over-hyped “fiscal cliff” are those who depend on the timely receipt of their unemployment checks.

Here’s how Professor Galbraith explains this phony crisis:

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One thought on “Why The Fiscal Cliff is a Scam (Made Easy)”

  1. RickD says:
    December 1, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    The wealthy run our government in several ways. They supply the outrageous amounts of money necessary to run for public office, their corporations use lobbyists to gain advantageous in both govt. contracts and deregulation of their respective industries. Corporations like General Electric earn billions in profit (GE earned six billion in 2010) and pay little to no taxes on those earnings ( again, GE paid no taxes whatsoever on that six billion).

    Yet, despite the inequities in paying ones fair share we always see the focus of cuts on the middle and working classes. It is long past time for we the people to understand that we hold all the power and actually exercise it.

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