Though the majority of my articles here are business information and professional advice & counsel to small and medium businesses, this one is a commentary on the Fiscal Cliff issues facing our nation. In fact however, I guess you could still say this is intended to be a helpful article for SMB’s too, and Americans in general as well? In any case, this is an opinion so you have been forewarned!
To get right to the point, despite the huge clamor, hue and cry from the media and DC, the fiscal cliff would probably actually have been a good thing for us all to go over? Yes, there, I said it! Why do I say that? The American public seems happily willing to continue with a “business as usual” attitude towards Washington and our government these days. Whatever the excuse, the electorate happily avoids reality almost as much as the politicians. Whether it applies to you or not, the concern we need all have is the voting results clearly shows that such applies tothe majority. I say that as this is the first time in our history that anyone from any party with such a horrible economic record and burdened with multiple (and real) scandals) has been re-elected (with apparent ease I might add) by an electorate who are apparently asleep at the wheel or at least comfortable to look the other way, as the media certainly does! The only real power the public has is their vote, but that can seemingly be bought by a landslide of biased, even blatantly dishonest political ads. Handily the politicians passed laws that say political ads cannot be edited nor refused by networks and publishers. Unfortunately that is necessary because media sources long ago gave up any semblance of non-bias, happily being over the top for one political group versus the other. By doing so, and no one seems to care, the media has given up its fundamental reason for existing (to report the news). Instead, the vast majority of what passes for news these days is clearly politically spun and edited tripe placed for its ability to get ratings or to satisfy a political agenda. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to turn on your radio or TV this evening and hear what actually happened in the world today with NO opinion or "perspective" from the person and network reporting? But I digress.
The presidency is a job, and we are the employers! We should like the person we hire, but the first issue always has to be "do they have the experience, knowledge and record to prove they can do the job?" Given a choice of someone with a long and stellar record of accomplishment in turning around myriad companies, and even something as massive and unmanageable as the Olympics, or choosing a president many people like for varying personal reasons, but who clearly has no fitting experience with economics, business or anything like it and who has made a shambles of the already bad economy in his prior four years of excessive spending programs unheard of in our history, the electorate chose to reelect this president. That’s equivalent to saying that you let a known child molester stay in your house with your kids because you know he’s actually really is a nice guy and just needs a chance! Insanity!
Now we are given this ongoing soap opera for weeks over the “Fiscal Cliff” which the Congress self imposed on the President and themselves a couple of years ago and which both have totally ignored. They knew it well, knew it was coming and knew it simply was impetus to get them to do what is right… STOP THE SPENDING BINGE AND REIN IN GOVERNMENT! Yet the President, the Senate and the Congress effectively did NOTHING to stop it from coming on. In fact the Obama administration is busy and/or already has programs passed and in place that will massively increase spending over the next four years, effectively breaking the United States! Yet the public calmly goes about their business seemingly happy to let the politicians ride us over the real cliff of deficits that are crushing our economy and currently costing about $49,000 per year for every man woman and child in the U.S.! Are we all that crazy? I submit the fiscal cliff might be valuable to actually go over, as it would at least surely wake up a public completely in denial! So now the political hacks are feeding us all some new drivel that they have miraculously avoided a great pitfall for us… like they should be congratulated. When actually all they have done, as they seem always to do regardless of party, is to avoid their responsibility and pass this disaster on until later, and twist the truth to fit the message they want the public to hear. All while Rome burns! Worst of all, I am sure there are many out there glad to give all of them a pat on the back for their “good job”.
You might think from this article that my opinion is a negative one? Not so! My message is actually a hopeful one and simple in that I plead with everyone to “WAKE UP and Smell the Ashes!” We are already over the cliff with our huge deficits and plummeting to a level of oblivion that even the greatest economic come back imaginable could not reverse! This is not a plea for parties or politics; it is a plea for reason and to save our children and grandchildren, if not ourselves, from the utter ruin we have imposed with massive deficit spending! If you take nothing else from this, please think where you are going to get $49,000 from you, your spouse and each child this year, and every year to come, just to pay the interest on the debts our politicians have run up, and they want more! Take your country back, whatever it takes. But first use your brain to see the obvious truths in front of you and refuse those that would blind you and the public with more BS or worse, try to distract you with hyperbole over unimportant matters!
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." -- Alexis de Tocqueville
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