Fiscal cliff: Again Americans are being herded into a bad decision by our elected officials, as if January 1st is a lock-in date after which everything ends.
Californians recently voted for a 30 percent increase of state income tax for individuals earning $250,000 or more. This law was made effective to the start of 2012.
Rep. John Boehner should just sit and slowly negotiate a plan that will pass through the House. Just state before Dec. 31 that it is 100 percent certain Bush-era tax policies for middle-income earners will remain in place effective Jan. 1, 2013. After, who cares if the legislative wrangling is not finished until April.
In this manner, a much better deal can be accomplished rolling the debt ceiling into it. Social Security and Medicare are going under. The time is now to deal with this. Just kicking this can down the road by legislating a bad fiscal cliff deal will come back to harm the most vulnerable in our society going forward.
Pat Kean
Kihei
