Tom Harkin Gets It: Fiscal Cliff Scaremongering

    Finally someone gets it. You here so much consternation about it in so much of David Brooks' media. I agree with Krugman: what's most irritating about the Very Serious People (VSP) is their faux earnestness.

    I've often waned skeptical about it myself. In the last piece I just referred to it as the biggest threat to man since Y2K:

     "The data puts consumer spending in a slightly brighter light considering growing fears the U.S. government will adopt harsh austerity measures in January, while new jobless claims fell to within a hair of their lowest since the economic recovery began and pointed to ongoing healing in the labor market. (Read More: As Global Consumers Shop Mobile, Apple Outshines Rivals)"

     "Consumers have recovered somewhat after October's drop in sales," said Joseph Trevisani, a market strategist at Worldwide Markets in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

     "I still think they overdo the fiscal cliff talk. I really think this is more like the Y2K threat than anything. Maybe I'm to sanguine about this. We'll see in just a few weeks."
     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/12/jobless-claims-fall-to-just-346000.html

     You see how it's routinely flagged in the business press.  Now Democrat Senator Tom Harkin is calling them out:

     "Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) joined HuffPost Live host on Wednesday to discuss the "fiscal cliff." He told host Alicia Menendez that conservative media has blown the crisis out of proportion.
"The Rush Limbaughs and the echo chambers around the country have really manufactured this," he said, comparing it to the Y2K crisis. "This crisis has been manufactured to scare people so that we will do something here in a hurry."

     "Harkin said it's "like hostage-taking," and added that the conservative media has "confused people deliberately in order to try to get their way."

     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/12/tom-harkin-conservative-m_n_2288696.html

     This is the one time you can quote George W. Bush approvingly: no negotiation with hostage takers. I for one would prefer to pay higher taxes-and I'm anything but a rich man-than allow these thugs to continue to hold up our entire economy and country up for ransom every few months.