Don't Believe Them When They Say It's Not Political

Trey Smith

When governments set tax rates, they are making decisions about who will prosper and by how much. A government that takes 90 cents out of each dollar above a threshold, as the United States did in the Eisenhower years, is deciding to limit the wealth that people can accumulate from their earnings. Likewise, a government that taxes the poor on their first dollar of wages, as the United States does with the Social Security and Medicare taxes, is deciding to limit or eliminate the ability of those at the bottom of the economic ladder to save money and improve their lot on life.
~ from Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else by David Cay Johnson ~

In the coming weeks and months, we will hear a lot about the "fiscal cliff" that the federal budget supposedly will fall off of IF Congress and the President can't work out a "sensible" agreement. One silly phrase that we will hear over and over again -- from both sides of the corporate party aisle -- is that politics should be put aside in order to craft a bipartisan solution.

People, this is a crock because every action (or inaction) taken by lawmakers IS political by its very nature. You could no more remove politics from these discussions as you or I could decide to quit breathing air and yet live!

If the military budget is to be spared from the budget ax -- as both the GOP and the President have indicated previously -- then many other items in the federal budget will suffer. That right there is a political decision.

If the tax cuts for the ultra wealthy are re-upped, it will mean deep reductions in some of the programs that many people depend on. That too is a political decision.

In fact, whatever they ultimately decide on will be shaped by politics. Congress and the President will be deciding who wins and who loses. That is the very essence of politics.

So, don't be fooled, no matter how many times they tell you otherwise!