That Cliff

Post Date

Sun, 12/30/2012 - 08:57

Categories

Politics

News cycles bring tiresome phrases. Like "fiscal cliff." That is a big one lately. Whoever came up with that must be getting big royalties, which is not good for him if we go over that cliff because that means he will owe big taxes come January 1.

We all remember Y2K. Ugh did I get tired of hearing about Y2K. I think that was even bigger than the fiscal cliff. Y2K was forecasting total collapse; might be able to survive the fiscal cliff with just some broken bones.

In 1947 Harry Truman was faced with a railroad strike of hundreds of thousands of railroad workers. It crippled the country. He came up with a brilliant, though marginally legal idea. If the striking employees did not go back to work, he told Congress in an address, he was going to draft them all into the army. It worked. The next day they were all back.

Maybe our president should try something like that. Tell those House republicans who scuttled the deal that they have until tomorrow to agree, otherwise they get drafted and shipped to Afghanistan for duty. Give 'em hell.

Comments

Mitch Tobol

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I like it...and they should only receive the average American's healthcare benefits.

Janet Adler

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A video comment...how wonderful. Next Sunday I shall put my makeup on before turning on Gotham. Some weeks ago there was a video obit in the NY Times. What is this world coming to? Fiscal Cliff....say WEEEEEEE here we go And to think we all elected these morons....

David Abeshouse

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Don, Wikipedia confirmed my vague recollection regarding the origin of the term:
In late February 2012, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, popularized the term "fiscal cliff" for the impending 2012 fiscal crisis. Before the House Financial Services Committee he described that "a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases" would take place on January 1, 2013.
Since the electorate doesn't seem to vote incumbents out when they misbehave, underperform, or otherwise fail to do what's best for the country as contrasted with what the politicians perceive to be best for themselves, perhaps against-their-will drafting into military duty may be the answer -- just imagine some of those coddled septugenarians shouldering infantry packs over the Afghan terrain...wow.

David Henry

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I think the potential fall out from the fiscal cliff will be worse than Y2K. Maybe we can push Congress over a physical cliff???

Corey Bearak

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No draft at the moment. The real problem detailed by Nate Silver in his 538 column involves how "safe" most seats in Congress remain following redistricting. His analysis indicated mod Dems and Reps seat remain safe (very blue or red in presidential elections) and thus primaries in one's own party emerge as a great threat. The congressional district configurations will remain as is through 2020. Thus, either certain people need to move en masse in targeted districts or other targeted people pass on or move out or a massive persuasion effort get introduced (separate question whether such may be possible.
I share Paul Krugman's view about the cliff; there'll be impacts but life will go on...and I think that is where long-term the Reps must fear things.