Seeing the Round Corners

HEADS UP, the new day for Seeing the Round Corners “GOING LIVE” is Tuesday each week.

March 9, 2021

The column today originally appeared in January of 2013. A political cartoon (“Pot Shots”) from a down-below newspaper included a very poignant statement many years ago and not at all cartoonish:  “Nobody ever gets the chance to make more than one fatal mistake.” Think long and hard on that statement.

The reason for including the cartoon’s statement again is far more serious now than the reason back then – the dangerous attitude President Joe Biden is showing for America. Biden’s obsession with reversing the positive efforts of former President Trump – the economy, jobs, immigration, pride in America, foreign affairs, manufacturing companies returning to America – to name a few.

Biden is shown frequently at a desk ostensibly signing a stack of executive orders reversing the orders signed by former President Trump. Does the man honestly believe that is what his job is? Can he not see the explosive situation building at the southern border of the United States? Except for a campaign promise to end the fossil fuel industry, does America know what plans Biden has for America?

There was a comment released from within the Biden Administration that the Biden Administration really did not begin until February, January did not count. Sounds like we are in for more of former President George W. Bush’s fuzzy math. Biden seems to have developed a problem:”Memo re Biden- do the same but switch the name.”

Readers are encouraged to read (maybe study would be a better admonition)V the position of Biden when compared to Mitt Romney. Why is President Biden so dangerous? The freedom of America has never been so threatened with being taken over by Socialism as it is now by Biden and the Democrats!

HEADING FOR THAT FISCAL CLIFF                                                 January 7, 2013

The “Pot Shots” political cartoons that appeared for years in the down-below newspapers were long a source of amusement to this writer, but often, they made a strong poignant statement. One ten years ago (now faded and torn on the bulletin board) should never be forgotten by America:  “Nobody every gets a chance to make more than one fatal mistake.”

The barrage of Republican rhetoric on the fiscal cliff, the reverence shown for the infamous “Bush tax cuts,” and the arrogance assumed by Republicans of a Mitt Romney win in November affords all Americans yet another opportunity to scrutinize just what the eight years of George W. Bush brought to this country. We’ll ignore for now the part the first George Bush played.

An example of that arrogance is exemplified by this “tid-bit” gleaned from a news release:  “Logan International Airport ran short of parking spaces on Election Day 2012 – mind you not for cars but for private jets because Romney’s rich supporters arrived in such numbers to celebrate the assumed victory of their candidate.

This question should be the headlines in place of the ominous scare tactics of the fiscal cliff:  “Why are Republicans in Congress so obsessed with renewing the Bush tax cuts?” Read on for why.

The reverence shown the Bush tax cuts is one of the most fraudulent tactics ever inflicted on this country in modern times, surpassed only by reasons for the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, in this writer’s opinion. The 2012 election was won because the middle class and lower-income Americans recognized what Romney stood for, and turned out to vote in previously unheard of numbers.

As fiscal cliff intimidation escalates, keep in mind these possibilities should the Bush tax cuts not be renewed:

• no tax cut for the rich;
• no cuts to benefits for the middle class and lower income Americans;
• raising the retirement age is a blatantly regressive idea under the pretense of sensible policies to reduce the budget deficit (also a ruse of “shared sacrifice”);
• raising the retirement age and eligibility age for Medicare would impact the middle class but have near catastrophic impact on the most vulnerable in America – the lower-income segment of the population;
• the impact of raising the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare for the wealthy would be negligible if at all;
• a long-life expectancy typically is almost a “perk” experienced in much higher percentages by the wealthy – after all, how many of the wealthy are uninsured and are denied preventive health care due to that reason;
• revenue increase is solved by limiting deductions rather than higher tax rates is a ruse and only works when using George Bush’s fuzzy math (remember that cliché is still appropriate); and
• the doom of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts is painted by far too many of the deficit fear mongers and the wealthy of America as some kind of a patriotic sacrifice, a shared sacrifice all Americans should be willing to accept – it is not!

After such a damming loss in November, Republicans still appear clueless in recognizing how selfish the rhetoric is that all Americans should be willing to share in the sacrifice to reduce the deficit. That rhetoric is seen by middle class and lower-income Americans as just another way of protecting the wealth of the one percent.

Ask how “shared sacrifice” can be relevant when one side is making $50,000.00 or $75,000.00 annually and the other side is making $250,000.00 or more! Seventeen percent of $50,000.00 or 19 percent of $75,000.00 is by far a greater overall tax bill than 14 percent of Romney’s estimated $20,000,000.00 annually, assuming one is not using George Bush’s fuzzy math.

America is being held hostage by the Republicans in Washington. The question to remember all these years later should be, “Why did Bush push through those tax cuts?” Answer:  It certainly was not for the benefit of working or lower-income Americans, despite the small cut in withholding taxes. We Americans must learn to recognize a ruse when we see it, with the most important clue being when the idea is put forth by Republicans.

Remember the Atlantic magazine columnist quoted in the November 26th edition of Seeing the Round Corners: “The predicament of a Romney presidency is that he may make George W. Bush look good by comparison.” 

And now for the poignancy of the “Pot Shots” political cartoon in the opening paragraph . . . A Mitt Romney win in November could well have been that one fatal mistake ending America as we know it, at least for middle and lower-income America, but the wealthy and the class system in America would certainly still be alive and prospering! We would not be faced with becoming a socialist Democracy as we are now!!!

The reader's comments or questions are always welcome. E-mail me at doris@dorisbeaver.com.