2000 - George W. Bush steals the election and proceeds to go on vacation. Inheriting a huge surplus which followed a fairly strong economy under President Clinton, he took four steps which pretty much fucked the country for the decade to come.
1. Tax breaks, especially for the ultra-wealthy. Because they were suffering from having too much money, Bush gave the even more ungodly amounts of money to play with.
2. Two wars, both pointless, both costly, both unpaid for.
3. Medicare Donuts
4. a strong signal to Wall Street, do what you want. We will never enforce laws against you, we will never investigate you.
2008 - After eight years of disaster, incompetence, and worse, a new president is elected on a platform of change. The GOP immediately digs in their heels, and does its best to stop any recovery.
2012 - Given 4 reasonable years, some growth, a bailout that prevented a huge depression, the auto bailout saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, and new (but still paltry) financial rules reined in the worst excesses of Wall Street Bandits. IraqNam was over, and troops were coming home. The country rewarded Obama with four more years.
From the Church of Ineffable Stupidity:
POINT 1
THERE IS NO FISCAL CLIFF. PERIOD.
Anyone who says otherwise, especially the stalking heads on cable T&V, is either lying, full of shit, willfully ignorance, or in search of making a story, rather than being a professional reporter of news.
Cuts to the defense budget are necessary. Raising tax rates BACK to Clinton Era rates is NECESSARY. Those two steps alone will do wonders for our economy AND our credit rating.
Repeat after me. THERE IS NO FISCAL CLIFF!
POINT 2
Get out of Afghanistan, remove our remaining troops and corporate mercenary armies in the Muddle East, and bring our boys and girls home
Half the job is done. IraqNam is history. And it still leaves a bad taste in our mouths. We were lied into this unnecessary, badly planned, badly resourced, and horribly run fiasco. Our journalists were embedded, preventing real news from coming home. Assholes like Petraeus ran a PR campaign, not a war. We tortured, killed innocents, and caused the deaths and the virtual destruction of thousands of our brave boys and girls.
Once we get the hell out of Afghanistan, the drain on our resources will be almost over. Except for the broken bodies, the broken tanks, hummers, IED-proofed vehicles, planes, and more.
We are halfway there. All it takes is the determination to get our troops home. Now.
POINT 3
Tax the fucking rich, already. Raise the Capital Gains tax to the same rates as income. Period.
Tax the rich higher, and tax the ultra-rich much, much higher.
If Bill Clinton could create a surplus simply by faking out the GOP and NOT running two wars without funding, simply raising all the rates back to those days' rates will solve most of our financial problems.
POINT 4
Last, but not least, let's get an Attorney General with some balls. Investigate Torture. Make sure it never happens again. Prosecute those who ordered it.
Investigate IraqNam contractor frauds, which total in the many billions. Prosecute, get our money back.
Investigate Wall Street, for cripes sake. Prosecute Gold, man, sucks. Prosecute every greedy bastard that cause a worldwide upheaval and potential disaster. Ban them from Wall Street ever again. Put the criminals in jail, and put the fear of prosecution into every financial CEO and CFO on Wall.
Sorry about the rant, but, news coverage today sucks.
It is really simple. If our economy was building a surplus under Clinton, let's just go back to those conditions - higher taxes, especially on the rich, no wars, and not letting Wall Street fuck us over for their own personal profit. Because, THERE IS NO FISCAL CLIFF.