Apparently all the elected critters in Washington seem to think that the American people will believe about anything, by now. All they need to do is have members from both major parties portray the situation as potentially disastrous, add enough specific fear mongering to scare the masses half to death and then put it all on display with enough theatrics to win an Oscar and there you have it. No need for any discussions to contain even a dash of truth at all.
The fact is that there are no real cuts that have to occur by the deadline, whatsoever. They merely are not supposed to have increases over the outrageous amount they spent last year. When you add to that equation, the reality that nearly 80% of taxpayers were since saddled with a significant tax increase, this entire situation starts smelling worse than a fresh pile of cow manure.
In other words, if last year Congress was not forced to slash military spending, drop thousands off of unemployment, stop paying elderly care, cut out educational programs or wipe-out food stamps or other programs for the poor; then they are not being forced to do it now.
The Tribune-Review recently concluded, "Washington debates never have been more intellectually dishonest as this one." Although there have been many other occasions, the writer certainly nailed it for the moment.
One thing we can almost count on by now, the actors in Washington will use this latest charade of a deadline to put through exactly what they want to. They will plunge even more of the American people from the ranks of the middle class into the exploding numbers of working poor. We will see more tax increases and absolutely zero cuts in areas that would not have caused us any grief at all. How many people would shed a tear over cutting foreign aid which we have not been able to afford in decades?
The name of the game is fear mongering and engineered chaos. As for anything logical? Forget about it.
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