John Stossel‘s latest column reveals that he’s not as scared of the fiscal cliff as Washington politicians seem to be.
The “cliff” is a series of tax increases and budget cuts that automatically go into effect Jan. 1 unless Congress acts.
Will Congress act?
It will! I see the future: The politicians will meet and fret and hold press conferences and predict disaster. Then they’ll reach a deal.
It will just postpone the reckoning, but they’ll congratulate themselves, and the media will move on.
America, however, continues to go broke.
“They’re not going to admit that we’re bankrupt, and they won’t admit that we’re on the verge of a major, major change in our society,” says Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas. “So they’ll keep putting it aside, but then we’ll eventually probably destroy the dollar.”
The across-the-board cut, or “sequestration,” was designed to be so distasteful that Congress would be moved to cut more deliberately. If it doesn’t act, $110 billion in projected spending will be automatically cut — half from domestic spending, half from the Pentagon.
“They assume that they made it so bad that they wouldn’t accept it, but I don’t think they did,” said Paul. “They’re not even … talking about real cuts. They’re talking about cuts in baseline budgeting.”
Right, the old baseline budgeting trick.
“If they propose, let’s say, a $10 billion increase for next year and cut it down to $9 billion, they say they’re cutting 10 percent. But they’re not cutting anything, they’re only increasing it $9 billion instead of $10 billion. It’s done on purpose so that people get confused.”
