Aside
from the Benghazi incident and the scandal around former C.I.A. director David Petraeus,
the most talked about political issue since the November 6th
elections is the “fiscal cliff.” This
refers to the automatic spending cuts which will affect a substantial amount of
the government and the automatic rise in tax rates across the board due to the
expiration of the Bush-Obama tax cuts.
When looked at through a policy lens, one can see that “fiscal cliff” is
a misnomer. A more accurate term is
“fiscal ditch,” a ditch which separates old policies from new.
Many
commentators are urging President Obama to meet with House Republicans and try
to reach a “grand bargain” to avoid tumbling into the ditch. Due to the rigidity of the Republican Party
on economic issues, such a compromise would likely include an extension of the
Bush-Obama tax cuts for all taxpayers and measured spending cuts, although
these cuts would most certainly come in the form of pledges to cut spending at
some future point.
This
compromise would be a victory for the Republican Party and do little to
discourage their continual hostage-taking of policymaking by means of economic
brinksmanship. Additionally, while the
bargain would keep the American people out of the ditch, it would do nothing to
fix the faulty economic policies which have put the nation in these dire
straits; in fact, the bargain would likely solidify those policies in place for
years to come.
The
reason why “fiscal cliff” is the wrong term to use is that it implies the
policies which have been in place for the past decade are the only policies
available. There is, however, an
alternative. As the “fiscal ditch” moniker
suggests, there is another set of policies separated from the United States by
the ditch.
These
policies are those Republicans have attempted to hide from the American people
in the past decade. Higher taxes on the
wealthiest individuals who earn more in a day than most Americans do in a
year. Increased stimulus of the economy
by the government which worked in 2009 before Tea Party conservatives
dismantled the program after the mid-terms.
A fierce rejection of the austerity programs trumpeted by Republicans
which have destroyed Greece and Spain.
Increased taxes on capital gains, a source of income available only to
the rich which fuels the wealth inequality prevalent in American society.
Republicans
like to claim that the president’s policies have not helped the economy recover
in his first term; this claim, however, is disingenuous. President Obama has been unable to truly
implement any economic policies due to Republican obstruction. The G.O.P. has embarrassed the United States
with their blatant refusal to work with the president in any capacity in which
they did not get everything they wanted.
Was it the president who pushed the government ten minutes from shutdown
in 2011? Was it the president who
refused to budge on the debt ceiling until literally the day before the
government was going to default? Has it
been the president who continues to adhere to economic policies which do not
have a shred of verification in reality?
If you have paid attention to politics for five seconds in the past four
years, you know the answers to those questions.
While
the impending battle over the fiscal ditch is being construed as one between
President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner, the reality is far more
troubling. While Mr. Boehner is
certainly the face of the opposition, the individual the president is actually
going against is Grover Norquist. Those
who have read the Constitution understand why this is troubling. In a debate over the future of American
economic policy, a democratically elected president must overcome the impetuous
opposition deployed by an individual who nobody elected.
Norquist
is leading a slow, but steady, coup d'etat against the democratic ideals of the
United States. How the Republican Party,
which claims to value the Constitution over everything else in American life,
has allowed itself to be manipulated so profoundly by an individual who
exhibits the basest of contempt for the American governmental system is beyond
logical explanation.
If President Obama wants to be taken
seriously in his second term than he cannot oblige those few, yet loud, radical
fiscal conservatives who only attempt to conserve their own pocketbooks while
incinerating everything else around them.
The best course of action for the president is a leap of faith over the fiscal
ditch to new policies. However, it is
likely that the Democratic Party will fold to Republican pressure, which seems
to be the Democratic modus operandi as of late, and American economic policy
will remain on the same track which has seen little growth towards
recovery.
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