"Fiscal Cliff" = Shock Doctrine by another name

by: Zappatero

Wed Nov 14, 2012 at 08:55:19 AM MST

The reason "everyone" is screaming about this Republican-constructed problem is that the "everyone" is looking out for the big money interests who pay their bills, who fund their campaigns, and who will be the most conspicuous winners if current conventional wisdom in Washington, DC, gets its way.

The reason politicians love to be seen "attacking" this problem is 1) it's been Frank Luntz'd into a simple phrase that everyone, though it is highly misleading, can claim is true; 2) it lets Democrats continue their spineless, principle-free act in DC that goes by the name "bipartisanship"; and 3) it conveniently, with the help of Democrats like Mark Udall, assumes Social Security is a component of our nation's debt (it isn't) and lets Republicans stick a knife in a program they tried to kill from Day 1. (PDF)

Its death will be bipartisan, hallelujah!

Dave Johnson shows why this phony fiscal cliff is just another event that allows further implementation of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. And he details how, despite winning another landslide, Democrats still don't see themselves and the principles they campaigned on as the winners they were just one week ago:

The Phony "Fiscal Cliff" Scare

At the end of the year the Bush tax cuts expire. When this happens tax rates will rise modestly to where they were when Clinton was president. Also at the end of the year, budget "sequestration" occurs. This means that the various cuts Congress approved to end the debt ceiling "crisis" will begin to phase in. (Remember, the debt-ceiling "crisis" was when Republicans refused to allow the country to honor its debts, holding the economy hostage, unless they got deep budget cuts in the things We, the People do for each other.)

That's it. That's the "crisis." ll of the people who had been hysterical about the budget deficit "crisis" are now hysterical that taxes will go up and spending will go down. Go figure. Maybe -- just maybe -- I shouldn't even say it -- these "serious people" weren't ... serious ... when they said they were worried about the deficit. You see, the hysteria now is because tax rates at the top will go up (cutting the deficit), and because a big part of those budget cuts (cutting the deficit) is military spending. Unfortunately the sequestration also cuts important things that help a lot of people and our economy. But these cuts do not take place all at once (a "cliff"), they will be phased in over time, and the Congress can act at any time to halt any of these cuts.

The "Fiscal Cliff" is not a cliff and the language itself is intended to scare people. The name itself is designed to create panic, evoking disaster imagery of people and the economy falling off a cliff. It is the latest manufactured "crisis" and we are all supposed to be terrified and demand immediate and extreme solutions.

Again, the very people screaming loudest about deficits are the people who passed tax cut after tax cut, and military spending increase after military spending increase, and started war after war. Then these same "serious people" terrify the public, telling them that budget deficits will lead to the destruction of the country -- and soon. After a decade of screaming "9/11," "9/11," noun/verb "9/11," they screamed "deficit, deficit, deficit." Now they scream, "fiscal cliff, fiscal cliff, fiscal cliff."

Then after the public is suitably stirred up and terrified they offer "solutions" they say are necessary to cut the scary deficit (that they caused, for this purpose).

And the fixing all has to happen right now, in the "lame duck" Congress, before those new legislators We, the People elected can take office.