President Obama and Congressional Republicans worked out a tax deal that completely left out the Democrats in Congress even though they have a lame-duck majority in the House until early January 2011. After that time, Republicans will effectively control Washington for the next two years through their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Many Democrats have suddenly found some backbone and now plan to fight the compromise between the White House and the wave of the future. Good luck with that pointless fight.

President Obama is probably correct in his assessment that he had to do something with Republican “hostage-takers” and his interest in any viable compromise was too great. He could not walk away from any deal as recommended by many critics on the left of the political spectrum. Without permitting the Bush tax cuts to temporarily extend for all marginal tax brackets, including the highest wage earners, unemployment benefits would probably not have been extended and that would have seriously hurt some of the most financially vulnerable people in the nation.

Also included in the overall tax-cutting deal are continued tuition tax credits, larger earned income tax credits, and special generous depreciation write-downs for business investments in equipment to name the most noteworthy. These tax incentives all have objectively measurable positive effects on overall economic spending and were important to maintain for the White House. Most people who reside in reality would probably agree.

It may be very disappointing for some dreamers and others on the left to decry the world in which we live. Life is short and reality must eventually be faced. Nothing gets through the U.S. Senate without a 60-vote super-majority and even the old and current House under Speaker Nancy Pelosi is too divided to pass anything of significance without a lot of arm-twisting which is impossible during a short lame-duck session.

Republicans have one goal for the short-term: Continue tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. For the long-term: Get clear majorities in both houses of Congress and a Republican in the White House by 2012. Nothing else matters for their leadership and thus talking about all sorts of policies not related to those goals is rather useless – unless they must deal with them because Democrats have as much political backbone as they do – which is a rare day (somewhat akin to a sunny day in Cleveland or a rainy day in Phoenix.)

Polls of Americans do carry some marginal meaning for and influence some politicians since they live in a perpetual state of running for office. No matter how much money they get from their wealthy benefactors to spew forth endless propaganda, they still must convince about 25 to 35% of the electorate to bother voting for them. (This is due to the fact that 40 to 50% of the total electorate is too lazy or ignorant to even bother to vote.)

When pollsters can temporarily extricate most Americans from their endless narcissism and the perpetual distractions of their various electronic devices and entertainment options, most Polls indicate that few people wanted to let all the tax cuts expire, a majority would have been happy to tax wealthier people and large corporations more (but secretly doubt that will happen), and a clear majority wanted unemployment benefits to continue but most would prefer real jobs. Several respected polls also indicate that a large majority of voters wanted a public option included in healthcare reform, and yet another majority wanted to spend more public money on transportation infrastructure including high speed rail, and those ideas and policies were and will be abandoned by our elected officials.

However another majority still think that the federal budget can be balanced by reducing waste, fraud, earmarks, foreign aid, and teaching creationism in public schools. To say the least, 20% of Americans are so congenitally stupid they will believe any bat-s**t idea and follow any smooth-talking manipulator. Many Americans, suffer from decades of poor schooling, right-wing demagoguery, religious indoctrination, willful and proud ignorance, superficiality, greed and narcissism. Many simultaneously suffer from various forms of mental illness induced by long-term environmental poisons provided by various businesses, and consuming the most prescription and illegal drugs on the planet. Therefore they are simply not capable of understanding anything of consequence, nor complex factual arguments from the right, left or center.

“We have to get federal deficits under control but don’t raise any taxes or cut any governmental programs.” When delusional lunatics dominate the electorate, we get the political leaders we deserve.

Nevertheless, I personally would have preferred to let all the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2010. From a selfish and callous perspective, since I never qualified for, nor currently receive any unemployment benefits, plus my meager earnings coupled with my spouse’s full-time job maintain a minimal lifestyle during a deep recession, I would not care about cutting off unemployment benefits to others who have gone beyond the limits of current state and federal law.

However, since our public and private sectors are not interested in creating enough jobs for the tens of millions of people who want and need full-time employment, such a cut-off would be needlessly devastating. Since the officially fabricated unemployment numbers only count about half of the true unemployment and under-employment in the nation, we really don’t have much choice from a social, economic or political perspective, unless you enjoy being a sadist. Besides, unemployment benefits are all spent and there are objectively measurable positive national economic benefits to such consumer spending by the poorest and generally forgotten half of the population.

If President Obama did not extend tax cuts for the wealthy, there would be no extension of unemployment benefits – not in this lame duck Congress and certainly not during the next 2 years. Besides the $70 billion in allegedly lost tax revenues each year from the over $250,000 set is chump change against the trillions of dollars we are already in debt and will rack up in debt over the next few years. We are in a massive state of national denial and delusion so what’s a paltry $70 billion a year among lunatics stuck in the same insane asylum throwing trillions of dollars around mindlessly?

My underlying hope would have been that a complete expiration of all of the Bush tax cuts would force a long-overdue serious, honest and comprehensive debate and complete overhaul of the U.S. tax code. Unfortunately such tax reform is not in the cards because our politics is so polarized, paralyzed, superficial, partisan, and irrelevant to reality. Secondly, the oligarchs (aka plutocrats, kleptocrats, corporatism, corrupt crony capitalists) in charge of our merged political-economic system like the status quo. They and their lobbyists have completely gamed the system in their favor. (The only persons who like change are babies with soiled diapers.)

There will be no meaningful changes in the American Empire until is crashes, and then they will be too late. But for a business sector and general public with no memories, only short-term greedy perspectives, and completely controlled by sociopaths, that is the reality in which we currently reside. So comprehensive tax reform will never occur so let’s move on.

I would like to see DADT repealed, the START treaty approved, and the Dream Act passed. I doubt any of these will make it through the current lame-duck session or through Congress during the next two years. They were not included in the tax package and Republicans didn’t promise support for any other proposals that were not really their own, or that might make President Obama look good to anyone. If your overall premise is to remove Obama in 2012, you have to keep as many people unhappy with the economy, social conditions, and overall politics so Obama can be the natural scapegoat. (Whenever anything goes wrong or is extreme in the planet’s climate or local weather, Al Gore is principally to blame.)

It is more likely that we will see Sheriff Joe Arpaio arresting and quickly deporting college graduates at their graduation ceremonies who are not legal residents or U.S. citizens before this country ever welcomes the best and the brightest from around the world. A dying empire devolves into the worst of all worlds – anger, fear, ignorance, mistrust of everyone, racism, bigotry and finally full-fledged fascism under the guise of sanctimonious and control-freak religiosity and state security concerns.

The only thing we won’t see over the next two years is an Obama Impeachment trial. Too many wacko Tea-Partiers supported Republican candidates for Senate failed to win so the Democrats are still in nominal control of that gridlocked non-deliberative cadaver.

So let’s get over it and move on. The Republican-Obama tax deal is what it is. If Democrats block it, they have no viable alternative that can be passed now or in the future.

Saying “No” to everything only works for Republicans until they get most of what they want. It simply won’t work for Democrats since those who are a permanent political and philosophical minority in the U.S. must find compromise. Republicans who are the permanent majority party don’t need to compromise on anything but simply bide their time.

But Progressives, Democrats and Liberals (PDLs) can look on the bright side. Most of the American public and electorate are not paying attention to what goes on in Washington regardless of how it affects their real lives; they won’t remember what happened during the lame-duck session; and they will be preoccupied by various forms and types of media until the U.S. Empire collapses around them.

The U.S. electorate will continue to blame Progressives, Liberals and Democrats (PDLs) for everything that goes wrong in perpetuity. That’s life and PDLs cannot change that mindset. Therefore they are simply wasting their time fighting it because PDLs are responsible by their actions and inactions for much of what is going on today. Faulty liberal policies are just as destuctive as faulty conservative ones – and we’re looking at the worst of both worlds.

PDLs stopped representing the majority of Americans and became servants to the oligarchy. Republicans never faked such populism or concern for the masses. Thus they cannot be charged with abandoning the poor, middle class, and any liberal ideals.

Now the only viable choice for PDLs is to move to New York, Illinois and California and simply suck it up and watch the huge tragedy unfold over the coming decade. It will be spectacular but your chance at redemption will come in picking up the pieces and starting over under a Chinese-dominated world.

Submitted 12/8/10 by Marc Pascal from Phoenix, Arizona. To my many critics, I do not read memos that encourage mindlessly moronic mirth and merriment during the holidays. Bah, Humbug to anything happy and positive. If you want that crapola, go read someone else. I should remember to stop the silly alliteration but that’s a little bit of pleasure in writing my rants.

Post Script: To the commentator who suggested polonium as a cure – that was funny but not really as a cure. The highly unstable radioactive material is more of a description of me than a cure. Happy Holidays to Everyone.