Come Monday...Rise Above

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about,  websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

If you are looking for a news source free of heavy political spin in one direction or another, [CNBC] may very well be what you are looking for, with their current [Rise Above] campaign serving as a good example of what I am talking about.  For it seeks to explain just how falling off of the looming [fiscal cliff] will impact everyone from Wall Street tycoons to Wal-Mart greeters in a way that even someone like myself can generally understand.

Oh yes, it would get us all, but some are better positioned to take the hit than others.  Just in case you are curious, Wall Street tycoons are in the best positions.  For they have enough money to take advantage of tax shelters that most Wal-Mart greeters have never heard of—nor ever will, if the current Democratic and Republican leadership gets their way.

WHAT?  Both Democratic and Republican leadership, but they are on opposite sides of the tax reform issue—right?

No, my dear Virginia, they most certainly are not.  That is, at least not when the cameras are not rolling.  For President Obama insisting that the rich must pay a higher tax rate is merely posturing for the benefit for his ignorant minions.  For he knows that it will generate very little in the way of new tax revenue to pay our bills while the Republicans are doing just as much posturing in the hope of appeasing Tea-Partiers, who have no idea just how little raising the rate for the highest tax-bracket will hurt prospects of getting the economy going again.

You see, if our law-makers were serious about tax reform, they would be getting serious about simplifying the code and getting us closer and closer to a flat-rate for all.  For the way things are now, it is entirely possible for a tiny little company like [GE] to pay [no taxes] while my wife will be charged an extra 10% when she has to cash-in her [401K] before she turns 55, which is what we must do to keep us from becoming homeless in the next six months.

Oh, but there is a rest to this story—is there not?  For tax reform is just one side of the double-edged sword, with federal spending being the other.

CNBC does a good job of covering cost-cutting stories, as well.  For that is where I first heard of the Pentagon paying for the study of such things as what [goldfish swimming patterns] can tell us about predicting political trends.

Did you hurt yourself again?  I would think that after knocking yourself out knee-jerking so many times in the past, you would learn to at least hold your head off to the side a bit more, but I am just an optimist at heart, I suppose.

Yes, the goldfish study is a prime example of just incredibly wasteful federal spending can be, but throwing the baby out with the bathwater will make a bad situation much worse.  This is what I keep hearing from Tea-Partiers.  For they want budgets slashed to bare-bones without giving any thought to how much they are will be taking away from truly great programs that would not exist outside of the federal government.

No, I am sorry, but the state of Missouri is not going to pay for veterans benefits—neither will any of the other individual states.  In fact, if the big movers and shakers in the [American Tea Party Movement] have their way, we will find ourselves back in the days where each of us are pretty much entirely on our own, which will work out wonderfully for those with the wherewithal to keep their own rears covered.  Ever hear of the rich getting richer?

Speaking of such, would you like to know just who holds the vast majority of our public debt?  Be assured that it is [not China].

No, this is not to suggest that we could just keep on keeping on as we have been.  For it is pure foolishness to keep borrowing when we don’t have to.

Nonetheless, what has been said about our huge national debt bringing about the total collapse of the world’s economy will become a self-fulfilling prophecy if the hard-core conservatives are not put in check.  For the international banking system is based upon trust—not hard assets.  In other words, the reason why we are still able to borrow all that we want without facing an era of hyper-inflation is on account of the rest of the world believing that we will honor our debts, and the louder the talk gets about us letting much of our own population and the rest of the world burn, the more confidence in us wanting to always do the right thing is eroded, which also effects how well our own central banks can do business, both here and abroad.  Just look at what has happened to [Greece] and [Spain] as examples of what we are looking at if we refuse to rise above partisan politics.

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