This seems to be a yearly ritual around October.
The fight is over how to fund the government and keep it going. It is also about addressing the so-called debt ceiling which is the maximum amount of money the US can borrow. When this amount reaches max, the US government cannot borrow anymore and can no longer carry out its operations.
In a nutshell, it means the US is broke and cannot live without borrowing money from others.
Of course, the truth is even deeper and more complicated than that.
Although this country is broke, and cannot pay its own bills without borrowing, the so-called government shutdown threat is actually artificial and unnecessary. It is a tactic used by political operatives on both sides to wrangle concessions for themselves, their buddies and wealthy corporate campaign donors at the expense of working stiffs out there.
What is going on is this.
The US is financially bankrupt. It’s broke. It cannot pay its bills on its own, regardless of Obama’s PR slogans to the contrary.
Even worse, the US economic system has failed.
Other countries, including the ones who prop up the US with loans, know these facts.
But here’s the rub: those countries cannot stop lending the US money even though they know the US is practically insolvent and has been for a long time.
Why?
Because the US economy has been based on fraud and deceit for such a long time, that the economic house of cards it has built up has gotten too unwieldy. It has also ensnared many other countries in this web of debt and fraud to the point that if they cut off loans to the US, their own economies will collapse as well.
So these countries have two choices.
They can keep on financing the broken and failed US economy and keep theirs limping along, or they can cut off the loans to the US, call in their debts and watch their own economies and societies go to economic hell.
But these countries know the terrible repercussions that would stem from exercising the latter option, so they opt for the former one. It is for this very reason why the so-called debt ceiling will perpetually go up and foreigners will always be there to prop-up the broke US with loans.
That’s why this fiscal cliff fight is BS and why this government shutdown is unnecessary. Foreign countries pretty much HAVE to loan the US money.
This will be the case until countries which loan the US money wise up, cut off the line of credit, take a hit and rearrange the world economy in a more responsible and saner way.
Besides, the US is simply too far down the debt hole anyway. Shutting down some of the government is not going to help.
What this government shut-down is all about is protecting the handouts and subsidies the US government gives to the wealthy and the corporations, both who have been seeing record profits and accumulation of wealth during this depression.
And where do these handouts come from?
They come from whittling away at Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and other vital social safety net programs which keep many afloat and from literally starving. They also come from cuts made to government employment rolls, thereby contributing to higher unemployment at a time when too many are already without jobs.
So when you start hearing any politician talk about how “unaffordable” social programs are, this is just code-speak for taking money out of social programs and giving it to the wealthy and the corporate swine.
This is what is really going on, and has been behind these
fiscal cliff fights for some years now. All the rest is smokescreen. Plus, the
US military, the biggest financial burden, and one that is already over-funded,
will be kept running no matter what, which shows what this is all about.
And when this fiscal cliff circus is all over, and the
Democrats and Republicans together with Obummer reach their “agreement,” more
money will be stolen from social programs and given over to the millionaires.
It’s all about robbing the middle-class without making it
look like it.
And next year, this Kabuki dance will start once again,
leading to the same results.
