It's been a while. How are we?
Fiscal cliff deal
came and
went (
Meta). The more or less big thing to come out of it was the letting go of the payroll tax holiday, which depending on who you are, might mean cutting core expenses by some form of magic, or you're cutting how much you pull out for miscellaneous spending.
Side dishes included the slightly more wealthy getting taxed at Clinton-era surplus producing rates (AKA a bit higher) minus the surplus producing part of that because those rates start after the 400/450K mark. Plus spending cuts titled 'sequestration' were delayed for a couple months.
It was a mixed bag of news...
...then came
this, narrated by Chris Christie (Governor, NJ). It first started to get to me when I joined C-SPAN after the vote that delayed SS Sandy relief. I must've been tired (I delayed going to sleep due to the news of the Cliff vote), because I thought it was just late-night rambling by our lovely political dancers who know how to quickly change step. Clearly I was wrong.
The dems led by our President, and fortified with a Senate, put the GOP dominated house in a wonderful corner: Dems passed tax relief measures, if the house didn't, GOP takes a major hit. They knew this, and finally caved with a much more minor compromise than previously seen in other battles. GOP cries about spending not being addressed in the cliff deal, and like a tired, cranky child who didn't get that highly desired piece of candy, decided to get it a different, more or less rude way. They denied much needed relief to victims of a rare storm event that destroyed a lot of land and property.
This is where I chime in and say look: I understand this nation must get on a more sustainable footing. The situation before Sandy was clearly a house of cards waiting to be blown over. Unfortunately, that house had a whole ecosystem inside of it, for which most of the components are not moving to more sustainable grounds and have no given reason to.
So until proper, direct leadership steps in to peacefully and in a pro (conscious) life way get people to change their ways, let's get the current system back together here, somehow, possibly in a shade more sustainable setup. Passing relief is step 1. Baby steps are small, but important.
The current breed of GOP members makes an amazing class of jackasses that never cease to find a way to seep the life out of an already self-injured nation. Culture and social change take a long time. Deceiving motions and seemingly idiotic moves only slow it by making those craving for some form of sanity to beg for the unsustainable ways that provided it in the past (i.e. cheap gas, war for 'material freedom').
Having met many conservatives in my life, however, I know they're smarter than this.
Perhaps the GOP, and in many cases the Dems too, can start by discussing not the money, but perhaps what it buys that makes so much of it vaporize out of bank accounts. Yes, for one thing I'm talking oil and what it powers, along with its dangerous brothers and sisters. More people knowing the keys to the monetary blood-letting can only lead to more peaceful and sane solutions, and we have to watch for the wackos looking for an excuse to do harm or make problems worse, distracting from the goal of curing unsustainable habits and mindsets.
For now, however, get relief to those that need it. Hazy minds never helped anyone until the haze was lifted from them.
Until next time, good luck to us, America. The world's counting on us.
