CUT THE MILITARY NOT THE CIVILIAN SIDE OF THE ECONOMY.
The concept of the fiscal cliff was a Republican campaign hoax. Everyone including Obama has fallen for it and now they have turned it into a nightmare either or poor elderly Americans or for working people. It will bring economic misery to our country that is unnecessary.
The solutions being discussed now are unacceptable for a number of reasons. One, which is not discussed but is a huge threat to us is that IT WILL ENLARGE THE SLICE OF THE PIE THAT THE MILITARY GETS.
That is, even if all receive less in numerical terms in the end, as time passes, public employees and Social Security recipients get less and less of the political pie, and the military gets more.
So if Social Security is, hypothetically, now getting 10% of the pie, and the military is getting 15%, when the pie is reduced in size with Social Security being cut and the military not, the military's share will proportionately rise to say 18% and Social Security to 7%.
Those are not the numbers, but that is where this will lead. The military is again being protected and strengthened at the cost of the citizens of the country. Unless we want to end up with a military dictatorship a la Rome, that is a big mistake.
I think that the fiscal cliff solution in which the military is cut along with domestic programs -- is the healthiest for our economy.
No one has talked about how the deal Obama is offering will affect our balance of payments. I suspect it would hurt it. So our economy will be weakened at two ends. Not smart.
This is a bad deal for America. The Republicans in Congress did not worry so much about the deficit or talk about this fiscal cliff when George. W. Bush was running up the debt.
Only now since Obama really did follow through and pull most of our troops out of Iraq and therefore end some of the government waste, only now since Obama got rid of that big and insane distraction on the world stage, Osama Bin Laden, did the Republicans decide to magnify the problem of balancing the budget to overwhelm the problems of jobs and recovery.
We have been conned into believing this bit about the fiscal cliff just like we were conned into believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. None were ever found, but the media made a fortune off our paranoia and the war.
We need to cut back on our expenditures on our bases and military contractors in foreign countries and rebuild America. If we did that instead of cutting domestic programs like Social Security, we could solve our budget problems. Our domestic economy would improve. Our balance of payments problem would improve. And our problem keeping our military expenditures and military power subordinate to our civil democracy could be diminished.
So we need to demand that instead of cutting domestic programs we close overseas bases.
I haven't even heard anyone suggest that.
= new reply since forum marked as read
budget cuts for the MIC: the elderly, the poor, and the disabled will therefore just have to suck it up 'cause we gotta exert global hegemony and assuring the most affluent and large corporations continue to slop mightily at the public welfare trough is a much higher priority than the welfare of the elderly, the poor, and the disabled: just look at the Ryan budget. 
