I've been over a Cliff. It wasn't fun. We're nearing another. Do we go over?

When I was very young, around 5 or 6 years old, my brother and I were left alone in a 1980 Chevette at the top of a driveway. The driveway faced away from an unprotected cliff; one could walk right up to the edge and see down every inch of the 75 foot drop to the parking lot below.

My brother, wanting to play race car driver (in a Chevette? Really?), jumped into the driver's seat, while I sat in the hatch back, one of my favorite places to sit while being driven around. It was quite a different time than we're in now.

My brother had managed to knock the car out of gear, and we started rolling backward toward the cliff. I was the first to realize what was going on, but unfortunately I was also privy to front row seating to what may very well have been the end of the world for my brother and I.

So, it turns out, our worlds didn't end. My brother and I survived what looked like almost certain death with very little injury at all. I've some scars, my brother's one scar healed and disappeared over the years, and neither one of us remembers the event.

Now I hear there's another cliff approaching, and it makes me wonder if we're in all that much trouble, seeing as how I've been over one before. Having experienced danger and survived nearly unscathed often makes one braver in the face of the same danger, but also more wary. There's a lot of talk of a cliff in the news these days, and I, for one, am very wary of what's coming.

The United States, in its rise through its Industrial Revolution, two World Wars and several other scarring events, including the indelible marks of terror in Oklahoma City and on 9-11, has weathered every one of these events with courage and resolute dignity. It may be that we're unable to see the danger associated with our present condition due to our ability to withstand our past tragedies, but, based on what I'm reading and hearing from those who take our Nation's fiscal condition very seriously, we will not be able to weather this "Fiscal Cliff" and continue to be the United States we've known.

There are two directions being discussed to address our Nation's fiscal condition, but neither one of them actually addresses the problem. As a doctor will treat the cause of the symptoms instead of simply medicating away the symptoms, so must Congress and the President address the cause of our fiscal destruction instead of simply salving the symptoms. Our Nation can ill afford to continue failing to meet its obligations in a way that doesn't expose our citizens to the irresponsibility of passed Congressional malfeasance.

We've spent our way into a sealed tomb. While the "Full Faith and Credit of the United States Government" still means something, we need to cauterize the wound that bleeds our Nation out, address how to pay for our previous largess, and bind our Nation's financial future to a balanced budget that will only allow for borrowing in times of dire need, instead of using borrowing to fund the majority of our Federal Government's activities, many of which are not legitimate in terms of our spending is concerned.

Until we do something about our Government's insatiable appetite for our money, present and future, borrowed and otherwise, there will be no way to back away from the "Fiscal Cliff". There will be no way to build a bridge far enough to get us over the chasm, and there will be no way to keep us from seeing the suicide of the greatest experiment in self governance humanity has ever known. Our founders knew this day would come, and they told us as such during the Nation's founding. Why have we failed to heed their warnings?

A better question... How much longer will we be allowed to ignore their warnings before things are so far gone we're not able to recover?

Credit vs. Break... Neither does the Job...

One of the problems with the President's proposed Tax Credits, or Tax Breaks is they don't do anything for small businesses that have, until now, suffered due to a slump in revenue from poor sales. So far the recession has destroyed employment. Small businesses are the biggest source of employment in the country, and they've been shedding labor hours and boosting productivity of those left in order to just stay above water. Many have gone into debt or folded completely due to the flagging economy. Tax Breaks or Credits don't do much for small businesses in a bad way for the short term because in order to hire someone you must have capital available to be able to meet payroll while your new hire's productivity is tuned into a revenue stream. This takes time, and most small businesses have been operating on the borrowed variety of this commodity for a while.

The most effective way to incentivise small businesses into hiring more employees is to eliminate their immediate tax burden for the new hire, as well as existing employees. Small businesses who end up having to pay quarterly estimated taxes that are lower than current levels will have capital on hand in order to re-invest in growth. This can take the form of asset aquisition (generating sales tax revenue) or headcount (generating income tax revenue). The hard part is that Liberals don't get that. When you reduce income and capital taxes for individuals they spend more money instead of saving for tax day, which generates sales taxes. When you reduce income and capital taxes on businesses they invest the increased revenue in more assets and employment, thus increasing all tax revenue across the board. Tax breaks do nothing in the short term because businesses continue to operate at the same revenue level due to tax breaks not taking effect until the business files their tax return.

This delaying of revenue generation does nothing to drive growth in the private sector, and should seriously be re-evaluated. No real growth is going to be felt for years if this is the "fix" that is put in place, and by then countless more job losses and small business failures will continue to cripple our economy.




I was at : 6942-7298 San Leandro St, Oakland, CA 94621,

Want to Improve Job News? Cut Federal and State Taxes on Small Business

That's all I'm sayin'! Well, that and if the President wants to improve his craptacular approval numbers he should take my advice! People who don't have work are less worried about their health insurance issues than they are about their housing costs, or other necessities... You know, like eating? Does health insurance pay for that?



I was at : 801-899 Oak St, Oakland, CA 94607,

Tax until you can't tax n'more!

When will people get it? The AFL-CIO doesn't have a stake in the taxation of Wall Street... Or do they? There is no reason why a special interest group should even have a say in the way legislation is written, much less be allowed to make an obvious grab at that which is not theirs. If I, as a federal employee, were to go down to the nearest liquor store and "tax" (read: steal) from their register simply because during my last bender I bought copious amounts of beer from them and they should return the favor I did them in profit sharing I'd go to jail! There is no reason this should even be entertained. Goldman-Sachs makes billions of dollars. So what? Their investments drive productivity of businesses big and small. That they make a profit off of their risk in these businesses is only fair. They play their games the same way the liquor store owner plays his; the only difference is the size of the sand box. The AFL-CIO would have the government, through tax revenue, benefit from a complete lack of participation in the market constricting tax being proposed. The government has investments, too. Do you think they would be beholden to the tax man a'cometh? What about Congress Members?