By: Jeffrey Klein
Examiner.com
Yesterday was “Ground Hog Day,” and just as Punxsutawney Phil–the most famous ground hog of all–saw his shadow, signaling 6 more weeks of winter–the irascible and irrational sound bites coming from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), signal nine more months of choppy days ahead for Congress.
As expected, Senate Democrat’s force majeure play at the end of December, limiting to just two months the extension of the payroll tax holiday, long term unemployment benefits and the so-called Medicare fix, right before they were about to expire, forced the these prickly issues to the front burner once they returned from Christmas recess.
The problem? Where to find the $100 billion in this year alone to pay for them.
In keeping with their class warfare reelection year narrative, Democrats viciously want stick it to the “private jet flying, millionaires and billionaires,” in the form of a income surtax; as opposed to Republicans, who want to cut “useless” and duplicative government programs–because they staunchly tax increases on these job creators, as history proves it would stall our already anemic economic recovery.
“I want everyone put on notice – we’re not going to walk away without some tough votes. If they can’t do something, we’ll do it,” Reid threatened; even though a a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide says there is no bill yet being crafted, according to Trish Turner’s FOXNews article yesterday.
Then comes Pelosi, with her insightful views … “The clock is ticking on the payroll tax cut,” and adding that she saw no reason to pay for these measures (implying that borrowing even more money from China would be O.K. with her)–though, she stated, a surcharge on millionaires was the preferred route, if an offset had to be found.
She also suggested, as she has many times in the past, that the savings from not prosecuting the war in Iraq could be used–which is as vacuous as saying ‘I can use the money that I will save from not buying a Ferrari next year…’
Finally, another leading Democrat, Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent an email which read … “Families cannot afford a repeat trip toward the brink that House Republicans took them to in December and over and over again last year.”
The detached mindset that most Democrats share is typified by their total lack of fiscal common sense, in favor of the socialistic model of wealth redistribution by taxation.
When 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax, and 47 percent are receiving some form of government benefit, many of them have certainly developed a financial, cultural and moral disconnect from the remaining 53 percent who provide the financial impetus for the country.
And with President Obama in constant campaign mode, at the expense of the “53 percent,” leading the charge and promising ‘milk and honey’ in return for votes, with no consideration for our desperate financial situation, puts the U.S. in mortal danger for the next nine months.
Copyright (c) 2012 by Jeffrey Klein
