What Bargaining Power?

I had a friend reply to my Facebook/Twitter post "Raising taxes/debt ceiling should not be considered until govt across-the-board spending cuts & balance budget deal is done. #fiscalcliff" today with a reply that made me cringe. He actually said this, "Actually, keeping the Bush tax cuts for the lower 95% of earners now puts Republicans in a much stronger bargaining position later. I mean, what else have Democrats got to bargain with?" Seriously?

Nothing the Washington establishment does puts them in a stronger bargaining position later. Minute, by minute we are deeper in debt while the average citizen does not truly understand or care that one day very soon this will affect them, their kids, and/or their kids, kids.

I mean, really? What happens if all the "Rich" folks, take all their marbles and go to another country? What happens if China no longer loans us money? What happens if Social Security and Medicare goes bankrupt? What happens when we have more retired Presidents, VP's, Senators and Representatives alive than in office while they receive full pay? What happens when the electrical grids fail because the infrastructure was not maintained? What happens when the "Big One" hits L.A. or San Francisco and there is no $ left in the treasury to pay all of the FEMA claims? What happens if Texas secedes taking their $220+ billion in annual revenue with them? I know, all this may sound silly, but any one of these questions is a real possibility that must be considered.

In recent weeks, Washington is finally ready to talk about the impending fiscal cliff, yet all they talk about is revenue increases and debt ceiling increases. There is no talk of REAL spending reform. In my humble opinion, they are either incompetent or criminals and I'll let you decide which. After all they are kings of making laws that apply to you and me, but happily exempt themselves! The reality is it should be so much simpler than this and I don't understand what people are thinking by re-electing the same people who put us in this position. Over the last 4 years, the deficit increased over $6 trillion dollars. Sometime I wonder if people don't see it as their money since it didn't come out of their bank account.

We need to get some perspective and KISS! Oh and for those who don't know the acronym KISS means Keep It Simple, Stupid... :-) First, "revenue increases" can occur without tax rate increases for anyone. As the economy improves, more people getting a paycheck from someone other than Uncle Sam, means more dollars in the treasury. There is no real need to raise taxes to rates prior to the Bush era tax reforms. Simplification of the tax code would be great (flat income, consumption, or - not "and" - sales tax would be great), but no need to pay more or less than currently paying. Second, something as simple as the "Penny Plan" would get government spending where it needs to be in a relatively short period of time. After all we are only talking about reducing one penny of every dollar every year until balanced using a consistent flat budget that does not automatically increase year over year. Third, why in the hell should we give them a credit increase by raising the debt ceiling, when they obviously can't even create a budget, much less a balanced one.

Obama was reelected, but the House is still controlled by republicans and the House controls the purse strings. I recommend, they use those purse strings to rein in ALL spending. Bring our Soldiers home, shut down the govt and see how long it takes before someone screams, "I Give!"

Top it off with an amendment to the Constitution that requires all of the current and future laws, including tax code and Obamacare, to apply to all branches of government! Until then, I think I've made it clear where I stand...