DC is looking a lot like Detroit. How dysfunctional is Barack Obama’s Washington?<\/p>\n
The president (and the GOP Congress) set an artificial deadline to take the country over the cliff a year ago, then did nothing to avert his man-made disaster until the 11th hour, and now claims victory for saving America’s middle class from another recession.<\/p>\n
But if tax increases on all Americans are economically damaging, then how is Obama’s celebrated 4 percent hike on folks earning over $400,000 a year – many of them small businesses – economically beneficial?<\/p>\n
Think of Detroit which is almost totally dependent on wealthy entrepreneurs these days for economic growth. Think of billionaire businessman Mike Ilitch who – as MIView\u00a0estimated two years ago<\/a>\u00a0at the last fiscal cliff – will now send\u00a0$10 million more a year down<\/i>\u00a0Washington’s ravenous entitlement piehole rather than investing that money here in his sports stadiums, pizza business, etc. Think of Quicken Loans billionaire Dan Gilbert who has been investing in Detroit real estate and businesses, but who will now have to send millions more to Washington’s inefficient bureaucracy.<\/p>\n Feel better?<\/p>\n Indeed, Detroit itself is a cautionary tale against Obama’s plan for the nation. Years of neglecting its long-term debt liabilities – even as the city raised its income and property taxes to record highs – has put Detroit on the brink of bankruptcy. As Detroit goes,\u00a0writes<\/a>\u00a0The National Review’s Kevin Williamson, so goes the nation. Obama’s brazen refusal to acknowledge Washington’s spending problem at the fiscal cliff is an echo of Detroit’s bankruptcy cliff denial this past two years.<\/p>\n The media bears co-responsibility with Obama for misleading the public on the fiscal cliff calamity, virtually ignoring the spending side of the ledger which is what is driving us into Euro-style debt. While parroting Obama’s claim that trillion-dollar deficits could be plugged by tax increase on upper incomes, the MSM failed to inform its readers that the tax hikes will raise a mere $60 billion a year – a drop in the bucket compared to the $1.1 trillion deficits Obama is currently running.<\/p>\n As a result of this media malpractice, Obama got away with not committing to a SINGLE SPENDING CUT as part of the cliff deal, even nixing the small .2 percent decrease – from 1.6 to 1.4 percent – in Social Security benefit GROWTH that he and GOPers had agreed to. Detroit City Council would be proud.<\/p>\n “One sign of progress came as Republicans withdrew a long-discussed proposal to slow future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients as part of a compromise to avoid the cliff,”\u00a0reported AP<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday. “Democrats said earlier Sunday that proposal had put a damper on the talks, and Republican senators emerging from a closed-door GOP meeting said it is no longer part of the equation.”<\/p>\n Earth to AP: It’s not “progress” when you ignore your spending addiction.<\/p>\n