Here we have a manufactured crisis whose downstream effects are likely being blown all out of proportion in aid of the expedited dismantling of social programs and the preservation of the legalized larceny produced by preferential treatment for the wealthy. The rhetoric is everywhere in the media and the same reliable sources trot out the same sham justifications, including a few gratuitous statements from Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation who is quick to assure us that any further load on either the wealthy or their corporations will impede the recovery, preclude job creation and stall a return to economic growth. Leaving the tangent growth discussion for the moment, it is clear that increased revenue for the wealthy and corporations does not equal job creation, that any job that can be outsourced will be outsourced, that the lowest price is the law in terms of the labour component of production. Much of this crisis was brought on by a series of tax cuts instituted during the Bush presidency, cuts that were of exclusive benefit to top income earners. Their puppets in the House of Representatives are fighting any return to a tax policy that would spread the load in a more equitable manner, holding onto that their greed generated and utterly unwilling to concede that they should surrender any of the economic privilege they’ve managed to build up. They also wish to cut entitlement programs, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, to privatize whatever they can so that the vast pools of taxpayer capital get turned over to the Wall Street bankers while at the same time further marginalizing the most vulnerable in society and all those who have paid relatively large amounts of their life earnings into these programs. The really sad part is where all the newspaper, radio, television and web networks continue to sow dread and uncertainty without explaining anything about the source of the potential upset: the same greedy folks who pillaged and plundered their way through the Bush years, the financial crisis (ongoing), TARP and subsequent bailouts, quantitative easing and the ongoing war dividend. The picture is clear enough: we can’t continue to take out more than we put in, and it’s the usual suspects that continue to be the embodiment of Dave Mason’s admonition in the title of a song: “You Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave”.

Update: Lo! a more scholarly and in-depth analysis can be found at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/28/americas-deceptive-2012-fiscal-cliff/