It's Time to Step Off That Cliff

I am reminded of that scene where Butch and Sundance were staring at the rushing waters below and contemplating jumping to escape the posse. Butch is urging that they jump and Sundance is reluctant, he wants to shoot it out. Sundance tells Butch that he can't swim and Butch says in response:

"Hell, the fall will probably kill you!"

And then they jump. 
 
According to the scare tactics of the political punditry and media world, we are headed for a fiscal cliff... or a fiscal slope, they don't seem to know for sure. If it's a cliff, everything will come apart at once. Your paycheck will shrink, prices will rise (in a skyrocketry fashion), and layoffs will abound as companies frantically try to cut costs or simply go under. If it's a slope then these things will still happen but over a longer period of time.

We will all be affected, they say, in one way or the other.

In the end, the rich will pay more in taxes but so will everyone else.  And we'll adapt. We'll shrug and just keep on going. Unemployment will go up but, for the vast majority, it'll just be tough times where we have to make careful choices about how we spend what money we have.

I don't think the Congress will come up with a real solution that will actually work. This has been coming for a long, long time and any attempt by Congress to fix things at this late date will likely just push off the inevitable for another few months or a year.

I am one of those who say "Let it happen!"

It's like when you were a child and Mom wanted you to take that icky tasting medicine. In the end, you just shut your eyes (and maybe held your nose) and let her put that spoonful of terrible in your mouth and you swallowed. Because, in the end, there was no escape.

They tell addicts that the first step in getting straight is to accept that you have a problem and then just take the pain of withdrawal.

It's time, I think.

And, to be honest, I do not see that the president is all that worried. I think he realizes it won't hurt him in any way. He'll just blame the Republicans for not making a deal. And the media will back him up. In reality, it was both political parties that created this mess. It's been building for decades.

Hold onto your hats, folks, we are in for a rough ride.