The tax compromise is over a week ago, and I posted my thoughts on it. But I continue to think about it. It has the approval of 65% of Americans, and this is being touted as Americans' approval of bipartisanship. Really? This is not the type of bipartisanship that is difficult to approve.
Imagine two people on diets who must eat together in a restaurant on a fixed budget. One is on Weight Watchers, the other on Atkins. They are supposed to share one meal together for 20 dollars. The Atkins dieter eats only protein without regard to fat, salad, vegetables and a few carbs. Weight Watchers requires a balanced caloric reduction, with very limited fats and moderate portions of carbs.
After extensive arguing about restaurant costs, who has the best diet, and how important a diet is to health, they declare their interest and need to work together. And, after years of arguing, they come out of the restaurant.
I would expect a shared compromise meal to be a salad with low fat dressing, a 12 ounce sirloin, of which the WW eats 3 ounces and the Atkins 9 ounces, one cup of rice and broccoli dry with creamed spinach as the other side. Both dieters can eat while staying in budget. Instead, they emerge beaming. They have ordered shrimp cocktail, a 16 ounce rib-eye, a Caesar salad, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and peas, for a total cost of 35 dollars. How does this satisfy the needs of anyone? The cost was exceeded, and no one's diet can be properly fulfilled.
That is exactly what we are all cheering in the current tax 'compromise'. One party wants tax reductions and the other increased benefits for 'middle America' and the suffering. Both say they want to rein in spending. Instead, we are both cutting taxes and increasing spending, while throwing the budget completely out the window.
And we are cheering this? Democrat and Republican alike should be disgusted. We can not look at fiscal reality, at the coming disaster of debt financing for personal and governmental purposes. All we have to do is look across the Atlantic to see what is coming, and still we do nothing. We have no policy, no direction and no one able to provide leadership.
Jesus asked 'when you see clouds, do you not know it is going to rain?' Apparently not. The road to financial devastation lies open and beckoning, and we, like dieters who simply can not resist the seductive whispering of chocolate cake, are walking happily to our own destruction.
Getting people to cheer stupidity is much easier than getting them to accept and plan for painful reality.
Ted
Imagine two people on diets who must eat together in a restaurant on a fixed budget. One is on Weight Watchers, the other on Atkins. They are supposed to share one meal together for 20 dollars. The Atkins dieter eats only protein without regard to fat, salad, vegetables and a few carbs. Weight Watchers requires a balanced caloric reduction, with very limited fats and moderate portions of carbs.
After extensive arguing about restaurant costs, who has the best diet, and how important a diet is to health, they declare their interest and need to work together. And, after years of arguing, they come out of the restaurant.
I would expect a shared compromise meal to be a salad with low fat dressing, a 12 ounce sirloin, of which the WW eats 3 ounces and the Atkins 9 ounces, one cup of rice and broccoli dry with creamed spinach as the other side. Both dieters can eat while staying in budget. Instead, they emerge beaming. They have ordered shrimp cocktail, a 16 ounce rib-eye, a Caesar salad, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and peas, for a total cost of 35 dollars. How does this satisfy the needs of anyone? The cost was exceeded, and no one's diet can be properly fulfilled.
That is exactly what we are all cheering in the current tax 'compromise'. One party wants tax reductions and the other increased benefits for 'middle America' and the suffering. Both say they want to rein in spending. Instead, we are both cutting taxes and increasing spending, while throwing the budget completely out the window.
And we are cheering this? Democrat and Republican alike should be disgusted. We can not look at fiscal reality, at the coming disaster of debt financing for personal and governmental purposes. All we have to do is look across the Atlantic to see what is coming, and still we do nothing. We have no policy, no direction and no one able to provide leadership.
Jesus asked 'when you see clouds, do you not know it is going to rain?' Apparently not. The road to financial devastation lies open and beckoning, and we, like dieters who simply can not resist the seductive whispering of chocolate cake, are walking happily to our own destruction.
Getting people to cheer stupidity is much easier than getting them to accept and plan for painful reality.
Ted
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