On the December 28th Your World, guest host Eric Bolling complained that Republicans are always getting tarred as obstructionists while the Democrats seem to get a free pass." To debate the "issue," he brought on Democratic strategist Mark Hannah and conservative Michelle Fields. Hannah urged a "balanced approach" while Fields sneered that we've already gone over the fiscal cliff so we just allow the deadline to expire. Predictably, the irony was lost on Bolling.
Hannah said, "President Obama has presided over the lowest tax rates in modern history, in decades and decades. What's happening right now is we're trying to roll back those taxes for people making over $250,000 a year. What John Boehner is doing by passively sort of letting us go off the fiscal cliff is he's raising every Americans income taxes in about a week from now by not being able to negotiate with the White House... He can't even get his own party to back his own Republican proposal."
Fields said, "We are not on the verge of going over the fiscal cliff. We already have gone over the fiscal cliff... Look how bloated our government is. We're $16 trillion in debt. Something needs to be done.This year we're going to spend $165 billion more than we received in Social Security. Three dollars we're going to spend for every one dollar we received in Social Security, in Medicare."
Hannah said, "...We need a balanced approach... We've cut spending by $1.5 trillion last year alone."
Not good enough for Fields. She said, "You all want to do is take money from the private sector and give it to a bunch of bureaucrats to waste. No, let the money stay in the private sector. Don't raise taxes when we have a very slow economy right now."
Hannah asked, "Why are you telling me that, though? Tell John Boehner not to raise taxes. John Boehner's gonna raise taxes on all of us next week... We shouldn't be debating this right now. Congress should be debating this because tax bills, as you all know, have to start, the Constitution says in the House of Representatives. The fact that the White House is negotiating with the Senate right now, is a little bit surreal and a little bit ridiculous."
Finally, Fields said, "I think we ought to just go over the fiscal cliff... If there's no real entitlement reform, there's nothing we can do."
According to Fidelity.com, going over the cliff could mean as much as 4-5% of GDP. Fields just admitted she doesn't want to compromise. Who's being obstructionist here?
Everybody’s taxes are about to increase because the party of “no-no-no-no- not on your life!” is hell-bent on protecting the filthy rich. There’s something very rotten in that side of the aisle.
BTW: the decision by the French constitutional court was based on a technicality. Taxation over there cannot be based on the individual, only on the family unit or a company. The increasingly dotty Gerard Depardieu has become a twit/twat/twirp who’s blustering is intended to mask his embarrassment at having made a proper fool of himself. “Allez- allez, creuser mon vieux et tu vas te retrouver bientot en Chine” (keep on digging old man and you’ll soon find yourself in China).
