Letter to the Editor
Dangers of the Fiscal Cliff
“Slavery,” said Thomas Jefferson, “is immoral and should be stopped,” during his writing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776. Co-author Benjamin Franklin responded “It is but a necessary evil that must be endured to keep the colonies united.” Far sighted as he was Benjamin Franklin's viewpoint of slavery keeping the colonies united was an illusion. Less than a century later slavery took the country apart in a brutal Civil War.
Today the Fiscal Cliff is almost 17 trillion dollars and growing by the second. The Fiscal Cliff is financial slavery. This dire situation will affect us all with higher taxes, fewer government services and rising unemployment. From years in the mortgage business I have seen the devastating effects of debt firsthand. I will tell you how this came about and how it will affect our freedoms such as they are.
The facts are that the U.S. will have only a wealthy upper class and no middle class. Only rich and poor equals a dictatorship. The citizens would be forever enslaved and the wealthy would be forever empowered. The U.S. government has been overspending its budget for the past 10 years. The tax cuts to the wealthy have decreased revenue to the treasury. According to Mark Shields a syndicated columnist”. The taxpayers are on the hook for 800billion dollars and no bankers went to jail. This is regarding the TARP bailout.
In regards to the government regulators that should have been overseeing the enforcement of Federal bookkeeping procedures, they were bribed, not necessarily with cash. They were plied with everything from parties to prostitutes. “Every man has his price and you would be surprised how low that price can be”. Those were the words of Adolf Hitler in 1933.
“The military budget rose 50% in the last decade while money for job creation went for war creation.” That was a quote from Edith Rasell of the Ministry for Economic Justice. She also said one third of the deficit is from the Bush era tax cuts and one third is due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I will now clarify how the emphasis on bowing to the will of the wealthy civilian and military elite has enslaved the American taxpayer. According to the PBS news hour, CEOs were allowed to keep up to one million dollars for themselves each as bonus money despite the fact they caused the bailouts. The Pentagon budget is one trillion dollars a year. It took ten years and ten trillion dollars to find Osama Bin Laden; and the war on terror continues.
I am saying the way the country spends its money and decides its priorities must be reversed. The wealthy should not be the final decider of the direction of the country the citizens should be. We still have elections. We should be the final decider. If our voices are not heard nor our wishes acted upon then we will be slaves and the freedoms we still enjoy will be an illusion. The manner by which people live determines the kind of government they get. By and large people do get the government they deserve and that is no illusion.