The Fiscal Cliff-Climate Change- It's a Wonderful Life

I assume that you all remember what key issues were debated in the 2012 Presidential election held on November 6^th. Both parties had completely different views on both the causes of our dilemma and the policies to rectify the problems. But on Election day, the American people (you know, the ones that live and breathe and have a pulse) spoke by electing President Barack Obama for another term. They agreed with his vision of letting the tax-cuts expire. Hell, although Pres. Obama had 51% of the popular vote, exit polling showed that 60% of all voters thought that the tax-rates for the wealthy should revert to the old levels.

Here we sit, almost one month later, watching politicians wrangle over an issue that we, the people, have already expressed our opinions on. Ignoring nonpartisan studies that show a lowing of income-tax rates does not spur economic growth they press on with their effort to "protect the job creators". The argument that higher taxes would choke off investments was lampooned by legendary investor Warren Buffett. Appearing on the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” Buffet asked if he (Stewart) would care about his tax rate if Buffett came to him with an investment idea… Who would say, “I don’t want that $1,000,000 gain if my tax rate is z% instead of y%”?  A gain, is a gain, is a gain. Period.

By now it should be apparent to everyone that players like Rove, Norquist, Boehner, McConnell, Cantor et al are acting as shills for a number of ultra-wealthy people who aren’t very civic-minded. This cabal of Henry F. Potter types     (see “It’s a Wonderful Life’)  want control of everything. You know, shrink government down “to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub”, let the “free market” take care of things and don’t tax the job creators. All they care about is boosting the bottom-line. Advances in automation, computerization and robotics have increased profitability but has done nothing to help the employment outlook.

Unfortunately there is a more pressing future burden that has far more dire consequences than the fiat currency problem we face with our government debt.  The victims of Katrina know about it… Hurricane victims in Vermont know about it. (I mean really, hurricane damage in Vt?) New York City flooded (I mean really?) Record heat waves and droughts (I mean really …)About the same time we were all laughing at the images of Carl Rove trying to cope with Fox News calling Obama the winner in Ohio the rest of the world was reading about dire climate predictions from the World Bank and the UN…

 UN Climate Report

World Bank Climate Report

Hello GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL

The US should go from being a reluctant player to a key driver on this problem…

The US government could devise a modern day set of initiatives along the lines of the  

 WPA , Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administrationhttp

Have it become  a combined effort to improve the efficiency of renewable energy sources but also include work on infrastructure projects of not only  schools & roads, but coastal protection  work as well. 

There is a upfront price tag but the benefits will far outweigh the costs.

 A Midwest Research Institute report from 1971  detailed the positive impact  the NASA program had economically, technologically and socially.

Using his best George Bailey impression, President Obama should go on his stump tour to lay out his plan to help tackle the climate change issue and be accompanied by Warren Buffet as Clarence sell his tax policy