patrick.net

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33140.htm

Stripped to essentials, the fiscal cliff is a device constructed to force a rollback of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as the price of avoiding tax increases and disruptive cuts in federal civilian programs and in the military. It was policy-making by hostage-taking, timed for the lame duck session, a contrived crisis, the plain idea now unfolding was to force a stampede. In the nature of stampedes arguments become confused; panic flows from fear, when multiple forces economic and political in this instance all appear to push the same way. It is therefore useful to sort through those forces, breaking...