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On The Fiscal Cliff And A Constitution In Crisis
Authored by Gordon T. Long of GordonTLong.com,
The Political Foundation of the status quo in America is based on a Grand Bargain of Complicity between the top 25% who pay approximately 90% of the taxes, and the bottom 50% who draw on the benefits that come from government. James Madison in the "Federalist Papers" outlined this complicity in the "Tyranny of the Majority". What is becoming painfully evident is that the political elite in America have falsely over-promised on the entitlements that can be delivered, which is now surfacing in the political turmoil of the Fiscal Cliff negotiations and has the potential to quickly lead towards a constitutional crisis.
Meanwhile the very top 1% of Americans, that pay 25% of the taxes and control most of the productive wealth in the nation, are securing and exercising increasing powers within the government, through what is becoming increasingly identified as 'Crony Capitalism" and "Corporatocracy". Thomas Jefferson also warned us about this potential constitutionally destabilizing influence which could emerge within the structure of the 'separation of powers'.
Out of a population of 315 million, presently only 115 million Americans have full time, non-government funded jobs. This is the same as 12 years ago and before an additional 33 million students, immigrants, single parents of others attempted to enter the workforce. It is now fracturing the social compact and the revealing the delusion of the American dream being available to all who are willing to work for it. There is no work, and certainly insufficient work which pays a wage which will support what is expected as a middle class standard of living.
This Grand Bargain is now rapidly fraying as 75 million baby boomers begin retiring and find the promises made to everyone cannot possibly be met. As the Fiscal Cliff crisis is blatantly bringing to the public's attention, for those who can read between the carefully crafted lines, funding for Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, National Security and Interest on the debt is consuming more than can be realistically raised through taxation.
To collect enough tax revenue to avoid going deeper into debt would require over $8 trillion in tax collections annually. Expropriating the entire income of the top 25% of households that pay almost 90% of the tax and all corporate taxes would only bring in $6.7 trillion.
"The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion"
Chris Cox and Bill Archer, Former Congressmen - WSJ 11-26-12
Claims on welfare and disability programs are skyrocketing at the same time that the demographics of an aging populace are causing 10,000 people a day to enter Social Security and Medicare, the two costliest government programs. Meanwhile, the upper-middle class that pays most of the taxes has been slammed with lower income and a devastating drop in their housing-based net worth. Compounding this is the fact that the disillusioned wealthy have slowed dramatically their invested CAPEX (Capital Expenditures) in productive assets in the US.
This above confluence and much more discussed in the video, indicates that is is leading to a Constitutional Crisis by the end of the decade.
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Will somebody please step up and enforce the law of the land? While you are at it, dust off the term "treason" and bring it back into the popular consciousness.
We are witnessing the destruction of the greatest political document in human history. Obama's ignorant legions of leeching lemmings will rue the day, because when the wicked rule, the people mourn.
Meh.
The people voted for Democrat or Republican salesmen, owned by the biggest banks. The people voted for a comfortable life: debt servitude in perpetuity.
The people do not own the Republic, and neither do the Dems, Repugs, big bank cabal.
Possession is nine tenths of the law.
Biggest banks, big government and any big religion imported to support it are in crisis.
The Constitution is just fine, thanks for asking.
Only 3% fought in the War of Independence, and neighbors stood aside, assisted supply lines.
History doesn't repeat or QE. It rhymes. Happy Christmas, munchkins.
It would take 30% today (because 40% support the govt, and other reasons).
But you don't even have 1%. You're SOL.
Happy Christmas, cranky old geezer. Enjoy your nihilism. Me and mine have all we want and need. Possession is nine tenths of the law ;-)
You write like an educated fool, a frightened bureaucrat.
New to the Republic, are you? Still strapped to the Household? The one in London.
Wishing me a happy Xmas shows you're a delusional fool. A true crowd-following sheep. Xmas proves it better than anything else.
Your delusion extends to believing your physical assets will save you and believing America will be returned to a "republic" by some sort of "revolution".
Neither will happen, and that's not nihilism. It's realism.
and has the potential to quickly lead towards a constitutional crisis.
You can't be serious.
Anyone still believing the Constitution matters is an ignorant delusional fool.
It stopped mattering long ago. There's nobody left to enforce it. Even SCOTUS won't enforce it anymore. They go out of their way to avoid taking any legal question to the Constitution. They address it some other way whenever possible.
OdumboCare is a good example. Most justices didn't even consider the Constitution when reviewing the case, following their personal feelings instead, saying they felt OdumboCare was good for the nation.
Even the penalty for not having med ins, the central question of the case, was answered not from the Constitution (where it would be blatantly illegal) but by ruling it's a tax, still unconstitutional the way it's set up, but that point was ignored completely.
SCOTUS has another clever way of avoiding the Constitution. They only address legal questions presented to them. The only question put to them on OdumboCare was the constitutionality of the penalty under the commerce clause. They avoided answering it constitutionally by saying it's a tax. But nobody came back asking if the tax is constitutional, and SCOTUS refused to consider that question on their own motion.
When justices issue opinions from their own feelings, it's not a Supreme Court anymore, it's an extension of Congress now, with an overriding vote.
"The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does." --- Supreme Court Justice Morrison Remick Waite
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html
Gordon T. Long needs to check his facts better.
While it's true that SSDI claims are exploding it is also true that deaths of those on SSDI are also exploding to the tune of 25% more deaths than initial claims.
Or was'nt I supposed to be aware of that Gordon?
Red Herring much?
In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%. Financial inequality was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%.[9] However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chart_of_US_Top_1%25_Income_Share_(1913-2008).svg
So fuck you and your whining about taxes on the top %25.
Major donors to political parties will not pay tax. Their accountants make sure of it. However, they will choose party leaders, and urge the serfs to work harder.
Such is the way of the globalists who party on, dude.
You can stay close to home and buy local or be another debt slave of the globalist whore Trilateral Commission.
Talk of the fiscal cliff is entertainment for the money masters, aided by celebrity shills and the most ignorant.
They are going to kill each other as the money runs out.