THE ENLIGHTENING CORNER

WASHINGTON—November 2010

White House officials and Republican members of Congress are trying to close a deal that would extend current income-tax rates for all Americans as well as the existing benefits program for the long-term unemployed. Republicans have stated in no uncertain terms that none of these benefits would be put into effect if tax increases for middle-class and wealthy taxpayers alike are discontinued after this year.

It should bother us, the silent masses, to hear our president accuse the other party of blackmail – applying to the above reforms waiting to be approved by the Senate.

“Prof, here we go again. By now, we the citizens of the United States of America are becoming used to the sharp differences that exist between the two major political parties that are supposed to guide and protect us during this difficult worldwide crisis. It is disgusting how the parties involved ignore the reasons why they are those supposed to look after the well being of the country. It has given the US Senate a reputation of the kind enjoyed by Al Capone and his loyal gangs during the Prohibition days.

The Professor smiled knowingly and said:

“Let me enlighten you about what is going on. Asked whether the country would find itself dipping towards the economic doldrums if Congress waited a month or two to get a tax cut package passed, we were presented with a statement prepared by the White House economic advisory group. We are still trying to read the minimal expression of reasoning in such statement. It started with the following phrase:

"The wait demanded by the execution of the various terms of this plan would not cause a double dip irregularity. A double dip would come out of the reality of a relatively contractionary fiscal policy of a non-exclusive outline as long as its accomplishment can be termed provisionally as stimulative under the assumption that prohibited bylaws remained under concretized parameters. The fact that such actions ought to boost growth by some incrementalism of a perfunctory modality is to be expected. The issue is that the deal certainly is not enough to lift the economy to a different plane of non-incongruous reality. Will we see what happened with the large stimulus under the provisional results of such patterns? This might take place once the stimulus has finalized its perceived mechanics over the economy and there might be a return to slow growth. That's the danger. It must not be neglected to ignore those impromptu effects that stabilization can be seen if aversion to controls as in the case of housing is allowed to take place."

At that point, the Professor and I began to cry.