Senate economist calls for 'Super Duper Committee' … After the supercommittee's failure in 2011, the Senate Finance Committee's chief economist suggested this week Congress may turn to a new "Super Duper Committee," in an effort to avoid the fiscal cliff, with dire consequences that are too big to fail. "The supercommittee was like a can with nails, and we kicked it down the road," Jeff Wrase, chief economist of the Senate Finance Committee, said on Friday. "Now, we have to construct an exploding can, so no one can kick it down the road again." – The Washington Times
Dominant Social Theme: The bigger the committee, the better.
Free-Market Analysis: In suggesting a "Super-Duper" congressional committee, Jeff Wrase is once again reinforcing the meme that congressional compromises are necessary to the functioning of the Republic. We would argue that in this Internet era – what we call the Internet Reformation – the idea that politics-as-usual provides us with solutions is questionable at best.
The "fiscal cliff" (like the larger Western recession) is a man-made crisis generated purely by the legislative process. The larger dominant social theme is that government provides a necessary salvation. The subdominant social theme is that furious "work" is necessary. In other words, an industrious government is preferable to a quiescent one.
Obviously, we would disagree but we will also predict that the upcoming crisis will result in huge media coverage of the political process in the US.
This is how the modern power elite that rules via mercantilism likes to work. An artificial crisis – economic or political – focuses the world once more on this or that difficulty. Indispensable men emerge and are feted by mainstream publications around the world. Eventually the coverage and the problem tend to fade away.
Usually there is no resolution. Nor should there be. The whole point is to provide a never-ending series of crises that call for a never-ending series of government reactions. Government is constantly to be seen as reacting to problems, finding solutions and creating results for which voters are then supposed to be grateful.
This is similar to the "never-ending war strategy" often employed by Western governments. Much as outside threats are manufactured to galvanize the electorate, so economic problems are similarly created to generate similar results.
Always, the solution of larger and more powerful government lurks in the background – the larger the better, from the power elite point of view. The more government that is available, the more levers elites have at hand. A law is merely another lever. Here's something additional from the article:
The fiscal cliff is a series of massive spending cuts and tax hikes that take a drastic approach to reducing the deficit, which would hurt economic growth. The Obama administration and Senate Democrats have struggled to negotiate with House Republicans over a more reasonable solution to reducing the deficit.
President Obama has been calling for higher taxes on the wealthy, but Republicans are resisting. To make matters worse, Mr. Wrase said "it's not entirely clear" whether Senate Democrats are on board with the Obama administration, which could make negotiations even more complicated.
"It's not clear to me how much more aggressive Senate Democrats will be," he said. It's becoming a game of chicken between lawmakers with the economy at stake. While the last Super Committee skirted the problem, Mr. Wrase said the consequences for the "Super Duper Committee" should be too big too fail.
We're not certain about the "consequences for the Super Duper Committee." But we think we get the picture. Wrase is suggesting that the necessity for a resolution be presented in the strongest possible manner.
What is also clear to us is that we will be presented with several months of drama regarding this "cliff." Each syllable spoken by even the most inconsequential political hack will be analyzed and milked for meaning. Again, the reality that the US Congress CAUSED the current crisis will be conveniently ignored. Congress will be presented entirely as a solutions provider.
This is the way the modern political process is constantly presented by the elite-controlled mainstream media. The solutions provided by the political process gain a good deal of attention. The larger causation – the endless meddling in the market itself – is to be ignored or at least minimized.
