Sorry. I'm simply not one of those who will be caught dancing in the aisles over the 'victory' that President Obama and Democrats 'won' with the fiscal cliff BS.
The frame of 'permanent tax cuts' is a sound byte used by both sides to describe this deal.
Americas failure to act responsibly and belly up to the bar and pay the Iraq and Afghanistan war debt is an indicator of how horribly disconnected we are from reality. Ike and JFK kept top Fed tax rates at +90% at that level, through 24 tax tiers in part to pay for the WWII and Korean war debt we incurred.
Iraq and Afghanistan wars will cost an estimated $6 trillion dollars. WWII and Korea cost about $4.5 trillion in equivalent dollars [remember, both WWII and Korea were 'short wars'] ..
So, what 'permanent tax cuts' means when spouted by politicians is that middle class tax increases [US middle class taxes are at the lowest in about 80 years, half of what they were during the 50s through most of the 60s ] are off the table. Since the rich are "off the table" and the middle class are "off the table", that means funds for the next war, for the next disaster are more than likely to come out of the poor, the sick, the elderly - those without the 'political clout' of the middle class and rich who strike fear in the hearts of Democratic and Republican politicians alike.
I'll admit, due to being overextended with medical debt, college debt, and yes even some bad decisions of my own, my family is barely solvent. My family income level is solidly in that 'middle class' tending to the upper side. Yet in spite of my income level, we are barely solvent, I've almost exhausted my retirement savings: but I could understand and support an honest need for a modest tax increase on my income. Even though my income has increased throughout my working life, my current tax rate is at the lowest I've ever paid. Facts are, almost everyone in America pays at historically low Federal tax rates, if you look at yearly history since the 1940s.
I'd adjust, make it happen somehow, if my taxes went up 2% or even a bit more.
But all that is now "off the table" - the meme has been set, the media locked is on - the cuts are 'permanent'. There's clearly no turning back from the disastrous course that Ronald Reagan set for America 30 years ago. There's a handful of Democrats in the House and Tom Harkin in the Senate who stood up and said "this is wrong" - they got drowned out.
So pardon me if I'm a stick in the mud, and agree with them.
I'm not celebrating the 'victory'.