Fiscal Cliff on Brink Thanks to Divided Government
U.S. needs a genuine third party to deal with this and other issues.
Looking back from this point, the last year seems to have been filled with misery and grief: the Newtown mass shooting that killed 20 children, Superstorm Sandy and the devastation she brought, the Aurora theater shooting.
Locally, there have teen suicides that touched several communities. Longtime businesses have shut their doors or announced their closings. Many in red Northwest Jersey probably viewed the re-election of President Barack Obama as bad news, as well.
So perhaps it is appropriate that the nation spends the last hours of 2012 teetering on the edge of the so-called "fiscal cliff."
Part of what led us to the cliff was well-intentioned: A bill designed to reduce the federal deficit. The other main problem was beneficial to taxpayers, but also contributed to the massive debt that led to the deficit-reduction bill: The Bush-era tax cuts.
President Bill Clinton was the first in two decades to balance the federal budget, and the first to leave office with a smaller cumulative debt than when he took office. President George W. Bush followed with some $1.7 trillion in tax cuts, and government again operated with a deficit. The debt ballooned and today equals more than $16 trillion. That’s unquestionably problematic.
Last year, the U.S. maxed out its credit cards, so to speak. In order to solve the debt ceiling crisis, Congress passed and Obama signed a bill providing for certain automatic spending cuts.
So the perfect storm is converging: About $110 billion in automatic budget cuts at the same time as the Bush tax cuts expire, costing Americans more than $500 billion.
The cuts would come in a number of programs, most of which would not affect the average person—although some 2 million would lose unemployment benefits. But virtually everyone would have to pay more in taxes.
According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center:
If you’re married with two children under age 18 and have about $147,000 in income, you’ll pay $7,323 more in taxes.
If you’re single, earning about $47,000, you’ll pay $1,310 more.
A senior couple with about $53,000 in income would pay $690 more.
And if you’re lucky enough to be among the very wealthiest, married couple without children and some $1.7 million in income, you’ll pay almost $100,000 more.
Everyone loses. And in more ways than one.
Experts, including the Congressional Budget Office, predict that hurtling over the cliff will plunge the nation into another recession and put even more people out of work.
Given all that could possibly go wrong, why is it that—at least as of mid-day Sunday—Congress has refused to compromise with the president over a solution?
The answer came from my teenage sons, who noted this same problem that has plagued our democracy throughout history: The two-party system.
Our founding fathers wrote a Constitution and set up a government with checks and balances designed to give the people a say in government and keep too much power out of any one person or one office or one house.
But they didn’t—couldn’t—guard against any one party trying to get a power advantage. They didn’t—couldn’t—envision the childish lengths to which each party would go to try to get its way, to get an advantage, to look better than the other.
A viable third party could only help to get the Democrats and Republicans to compromise not only on these issues of taxes and spending, but also on health care, gun control and others.
Whether we tumble off the fiscal cliff crisis or screech to a halt at the edge, divided government will continue to cause problems in how the nation functions. Consider that the U.S. is expected to be bumping up against the new debt ceiling again as early as February. America needs a mediator. The nation is overdue for another party to take on that role and really represent the interests of the people.
As a footnote, this is my last column for Patch. I have enjoyed writing it and hope I have helped frame informed discussion and debate over the last 22 months.
clyde donovan
9:10 am on Monday, December 31, 2012
You voted for them. You get what you deserve.
Sick of the trolls
8:51 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
So, what, "clyde," are you telling us you don't vote? That would explain why you don't appear to exist as a Parsippany resident. But tell me this, "clyde," if you don't vote, what right does it give you to complain about everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, that gets posted not just in Parsippany but anywhere in Morris County? If you're not voting, you're part of the problem.
Madison Station
10:23 am on Monday, December 31, 2012
Perhaps we should just move to a flat tax model. Everyone pays their fair share, and 90% of the partisan bickering will stop. Wait... that would make campaigning difficult...
clyde donovan
10:57 am on Monday, December 31, 2012
Flat tax would mean high-income earners would have to pay taxes.
John Dunphy
11:56 am on Monday, December 31, 2012
Colleen, let me be the first to say "thank you" for your service as a columnist for Patch for nearly two years. Your columns have provided a forum for many to argue their points—and yours—which I feel has been beneficial to the community as a whole. I, for one, am sorry to see your tenure concluded and wish you the best going forward.
VietNam Vet
3:06 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
When Odummer took office, he said he was going to bring the parties together so there would be no more "Bickering back and forth", oh wait, that was another lie. All this idiot managed to do was devide the parties more now than they ever were before, but thats what he really had planned anyway, but he wasn't telling that because he knew nobody would vote for him, and for good reason. He LIED people, face it, you got screwed by this illegal moron.
This fighting will become a very dangerous game in the near future of this country because of your votes for him, there will be an uprising and a fighting in the streets, just like the LA riots years ago, only worse and odummer will declare Marshall Law, something else he has wanted to do, it will happen. We cannot keep heading the way we are or total bankruptcy WILL occur, and we will be doomed. Sorry but it coming, and you only have yourselves and your stupidity to blame this time. { You can't blame this on President George W. Bush}
Sick of the trolls
8:56 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Oh, Mr. Brown, you make it too easy. I don't know who this Odummer person you talk about is, but he really sounds terrible. Maybe you should do something about him. Thing is, I don't think that person exists, except in your own deluded and diseased brain, since nobody else is talking about him. Maybe you should seek psychiatric help for that.
njMom
7:25 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Personally, I think the republicans should just give the democrats what they want for the next 4 years. It's a win win situation... if their policies work and our situation gets better then everyone wins... if their policies don't work, then in 4 years when we get to vote again... there won't be any finger pointing or excuses... we can vote in republicans.
DXJ
7:43 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
A third party candidate doesn't win because of basic math. As long as we have a first past the post system, winner takes all, we will have a two party system. As soon as one party breaks rank, they lose. It's binary.
As for divided government, it's because we have a divided nation. It's a battle between takers and makers.
Frazure
8:18 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The Takers, led by their leader OBLAHMA, are rapidly on the rise as evidenced by the 53% of the popular vote that went directly into the toilet.
GW
9:38 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
This is what passes for clever word play in the land of the bitter tea party.
David Comora
9:53 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
njMom, I tend to agree with you, but the "makers" can't afford to let that happen as it would finally disprove the myth of the Laffer curve and other bogus policies that have been designed to reward the wealthiest in our society at the expense of the majority. As our economy has slowly been recovering from the collapse which took place under the previous administration, Republicans can't bear to see Keynesian- style policies actually work. They are actually willing to dig their heels in, to damage the economy, so that they can prove that only the "fiscally conservative" Republican party can save the world. Unfortunately, we only have to look back 4 years to see the result of their policies....Our we could look back a little further to Reagan's tax cuts and increase in military spending and the deficit spiral that was created... or we could just turn the clock back to Hoover and his laissez-faire approach to the collapsing economy and the resulting depression. The worst of the "makers" shout out about the horror of government spending, while sucking at the tits of government with their private contracts, enriching themselves with our tax dollars. Let's be fair, there is a need to compromise here, there have to be cuts in spending, but there also needs to be an increase in income to get this house back in order.
DXJ
11:56 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Your comment is a mixed bag, but some of it I can agree with.
BTW: Hoover was certainly not laissez-faire and much of what he did was carried forward by FDR which had similar outcomes as Hoover. The difference is that FDR made people feel like he cared, and that's what made it possible to tinker and blunder and fail with impunity. http://amzn.to/WdC6M5
When have we tried anything but Keynesian solutions since WWI? Does that account for the long economic boom under Reagan/Bush/Clinton? Does it account for the economic blight under Nixon/Ford/Carter? What a grand generality.
Explain how Obama's fiscal policies the last 4 years have been any different than Bush's (other than Obamacare). Oh, I forgot, the last four years were Bush's fault too.
I don't count those sucking off the government tit as exemplary makers, which includes big-pharma, big-aggra, big-oil, big-defense etc.
I do agree that we need cuts in spending because even though total revenues returned to Clinton levels after the Bush tax cuts, spending far outpaced revenues. It seems one party is tax a spend and the other is cut taxes and spend more. Neither formula matches what I suspect most people understand to be fiscally prudent, which is a balanced budget. If you want the entitlements, you have to pay for them.
Dan Grant
10:17 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
It isn't a partisan divide that hurts America it is the Idealogical divide that is killing us. The attacks on this President began the very night of his election and continues to this minute in a way that no other President has had to deal with. For the Republican Leadership it was never about how to improve the lives of the middle class it was only about a narrow point of view and the demonization of this man. They claimed all along that they spoke for the American People and now the American People have spoken for themselves and as expected at least by me they were wrong. You can't run government for the benefit of the few and have it work. So now they continue to demonize but now they demonize the majority and call them moochers and takers. You see it here on Patch everytime a percieved right-left issue is written about.
Sir
2:45 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
And the democrats treated Bush fairly? Give me a break.
Denobin
6:39 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Sir: The difference is that, unlike Obama, Bush wasn't picked on from the very second he entered office. The Bush administration earned the derision it received.
FourScore
10:40 am on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
I recently watched the movie Lincoln, and reflected how the GOP was once a party of honesty, integrity and great respect.
Now, however, the party is defined by pundits who engage in infantile name calling, like 'Oblahma', or 'Odummer', or use juvenile words to refer to the opposite party; like 'Dumbocrats' or 'Libtards', and who choose spokespeople like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Donald Trump.
It's sad how far the Grand Old Party has fallen.
DXJ
12:07 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
And where is the party of John Kennedy today?
“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now … Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.”
– John F. Kennedy
http://amzn.to/U7JcHp
FourScore
8:39 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Yes, and criticizing the tax rates, the huge deficit, and the high unemployment rate are all legitimate and intelligent critiques of the current administration. However, calling the president silly names and accusing him of everything from being foreign born, to being a closet Muslim and a socialist does nothing but to sully the legitimate points.
Consider this… what do republicans call the members of their own party whom they don’t think are conservative enough? RINO’s (Republican In Name Only). Do you notice any democrats calling each other names??? That’s the difference.
sammy
2:17 pm on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Hooker? May I point to the spokespeople you follow. Thank you. Just for starters, there is Sharpton, Halperin, Scarborough, Matthews, Maddow, Schultz, Whoopi, Toure', Bashir, Reid, Pelosi
If you ever really studied our history , no politician or party has ever had a claim to be ethical, honest or have any integrity. Individuals do and did. And if you really watched Lincoln the movie, you would grasp that the issues he championed required the use of the Art Of Political Power... something never gained bybeing honest, or having integrity. You can now return to whatever comic book you where reading ... youve been schooled.
Sick of the trolls
3:41 pm on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
"sammy" the only thing we have been schooled in is your ignorance. Your incoherent post adds nothing to the conversation and, in fact, has made anyone who reads it dumber. Please return to NJ.com or 4chan or whatever site you normally post to; this forum is for adults who want to have real conversations about real things. Thank you.
David Comora
1:21 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
It is sad...Teddy Roosevelt, etc. All great American patriots...Although I have some economic issues with Reagan, I think he was a great leader and he was able to work with Tip O'Neil to get legislation passed. I also admire John McCain, Lyndsey Graham who I believe are fiscally conservative, but not blind party hacks. Its a shame that the Republican party has fallen into the hands of tea party and religious zealots. I think most thoughtful Republicans also lament the fall of a great party and wish they could sweep these less desirable elements away. If they did, they'd probably find a lot of independents and fiscally conservative democrats willing to join them.
Edward P. Campbell
2:02 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The Republicans still represents the vast majority of working, independent, Americans, who put their families and country first, and are very capable of standing on their own two feet. Here is proof:
http://www.decodedscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Election-results-by-county.png
More proof:
http://investigations.mcall.com/electionmaps/2012general/map-president-pa-2012.html
While the democrats represent the parasites that suck the money out of the working man’s pocket and feed it to places like our very own Newark NJ, where unemployment, drugs and murders run unabated.
Need Proof? Look here:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/12/at_least_six_people_shot_in_24.html
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2012/12/man_killed_woman_wounded_in_af.html
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2012/12/west_orange_man_gunned_down_in.html
GW
4:35 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Did this "vast majority" of morally superior Republicans choose not to vote in November?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/election-map-2012/president/
FourScore
5:01 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The other thing the modern republican does is take no responsibility when their party loses, but blames it on the American voter.
Denobin
6:41 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Edward conveniently ignores the fact that most republicans live in the red taker states. I'm glad to remind everyone.
Comfortably Numb
5:27 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
OK, trying to figure out which comment is the most ignorant...Edward, Nancy, or Hookerman....sorry but I gotta vote Hookerman since he totally focuses on the criticism of a party, has no resolutions in his rants (I mean posts) all of his rants are totally focused on criticizing a party.
also hookerman, great job comparing the actions of a party from the Lincoln era to now. Duh, all parties are fools in todays generation. Give us some substance dude, tired of party bashing.
GW
5:53 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Whereas *your* comment comes to what "resolution", precisely, dude? (Besides that so very, very many comments are, in your opinion, ignorant.)
Sick of the trolls
10:13 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Maybe you should lay off whatever it is making you "comfortably numb" because it's also making your comments ridiculously dumb. Or do you not see that your comment complaining about Hookerman's rants being "totally focused on criticizing a party" is exactly the same thing?
mrwilson
6:08 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Look at Europe. Once the Makers fall beneath 50 percent, the Takers vote themselves in a socialist society.
Comfortably Numb
6:09 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
nice attempt to try and drag me into your rants Nancy but .....I got a life and got shit to do. defending Hookerman???? ha ha ha.
I will admit I googled "Nancy Duggan Morristown" and i came up with a 55 year old lady with her family dressed in black, kids paying violins, combine that with a CAT as your picture.....I get it, you have no shot of thinking outside of the box, you are the quintessential elitist democrat thats gonna save the world. Good Luck and bye bye
GW
6:16 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Oh, no, please don't go, CN, it's been so pleasant chatting.
Whatever strange impulse made you Google my name is your own problem, let's keep it that way.
Denobin
6:45 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
CN: The fact that you had to resort to the bullying tactic of a personal attack is typical from someone of your bent. You have no logical argument to you lash out; despicable behavior. Goodbye, no one will miss you.
Sick of the trolls
10:16 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
At least Mrs. Duggan has the guts to make her comments under her real name. Who the hell are you, jerk? What kind of coward posts under a pseudonym and then has the gall to mock someone who is actually trying to be a part of the conversation, not just trolling the comment thread?
Mrs Duggan, don't let trolls like CN force you to change your name. He cannot hurt you, because that would require leaving his mother's basement.
Edward P. Campbell
7:28 pm on Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Let us remember – the “Financial Cliff” was created by Obama as he begged to have the national debt limit raised. Obama promised to cut federal spending, if we’d just give him a bump in the debt limit. He got his bump, but he NEVER reduced spending!
I hope we go over the cliff. In the long run it will hurt the liberal, big government solves all crowd much more than me!
I have lost total faith in our federal government. Be them Democrats or Republicans! Our founding fathers wrote the Constitution to prevent the federal government from becoming the joke it is today. Our founding fathers wanted no central government, because they foresaw here it would lead. Right back to the Queen of England style of government, and a total loss of our personal freedoms.
FourScore
8:41 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
If our founding fathers wanted no central government, then they wouldn't have written a constitution to define its powers.
Edward P. Campbell
8:52 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
HOOKERMAN -- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????
They did!
Need Proof?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enumerated_powers
FourScore
9:45 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
That's my point!!! You can't say the founding fathers didn't want a central (ie; federal) government when they specifically created one, and then carefully defined its powers in the constitution.
Dan Grant
4:34 pm on Thursday, January 3, 2013
Hookerman, Edward is just in his own little bubble and the fact that the Constitution was written and ratified to "Form a More Perfect Union" is a concept he can't grasp.
The Stig
1:33 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
It's amazing how many times Obama can get away with his greatest lie - That he has plans to reduce the deficit. Every time we reach a new "crisis" that he's created, there's no reduction in spending, just more taxes and more "investment" (aka SPENDING).
David Brooks was dead on in his latest column - Americans just keep voting for more "free" stuff - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/opinion/brooks-another-fiscal-flop.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Obama's legacy will be that he helped bankrupt the country faster than any politician in American history, aided and abetted by Liberals who think that is we tax the "rich" enough we can build a utopian welfare society, and enough Republicans who are more worried about getting re-elected than doing their job.
Edward P. Campbell
8:07 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Denobin - Obama was “picked on,” because those of us, who were not sweep off our feet by his lies understood the words coming out of his mouth were not only lies, but they were lies of the worst nature. Lies the people wanted to hear, yet lies he had no intention or ability of implementing.
Need Proof?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaQUU2ZL6D8
Jack Q
8:28 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
I thought taxes were only going up on the wealthiest? Those making $50K have to pay an additional $1000. How are the Dems going to spin this? Everyone has to have skin in the game? Lies, lies, and more lies!
Tax increase not just for the rich, Social Security Payroll Tax increases by 2%
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_cuyahoga/tax-increase-not-just-for-the-rich-social-security-payroll-tax-increases-by-2#ixzz2GpAx0PSO
Edward P. Campbell
8:49 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
You forgot to mention the five new taxes starting in 2013 for Obamacare.
You know that Obamacare that was going to lower your health insurance cost by $2,500.00 a year!
$2,500.00 a year, just another lie:
Need Proof?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o65vMUk5so
David Comora
10:00 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
I was listening to Sean Hannity yesterday and I had to laugh when he started ranting about how rude the Occupy Wallstreet protesters were and how kind and civil the Tea Party people are. Ok...so now we've got the income side of this issue addressed, we need to continue to work on the expenditure side. We probably could have addressed both at once, several weeks ago, if the Norquest zombies did what politicians are supposed to do...compromise.
Jack Q
11:11 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Really Dave? Did the dems compromise when Harry Reid refused to put House passed legislation up for discussion because HE disagreed with it? When will those on the left learn that we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. The President ran in 2008 on reducing the deficit, yet all I hear is that we have to raise the debt limit. Can you explain why we keep having to raise the debt limit if the deficit is being reduced? Can you also explain why the Social Security taxes went up on everyone 2% when only the top 2% were supposed to be taxed. Words mean something, or at least they meant something when politicians were held accountable for their words and subsequent inactions.
John Wisneuski
11:32 am on Wednesday, January 2, 2013
I just sit and laugh. I can't wait for the people to wake up and finally see what they voted for in November.
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