A bone.

Editor,

This deficit negotiation is all theater, smoke and mirrors to orchestrate unraveling Social Security and Medicare.

You want revenue? There is revenue: in a bloated military, in the 1/4 of giant corporations that pay single-digit taxes or less, in the Cayman Islands, in Swiss bank accounts.

Look at the bait-and-switch the richest 400 families in America just pulled on the entire American working class: For a measly 4.6 cents on the dollar, they gave permanent tax breaks to the working class with one hand, then more than took them back by reinstating the payroll tax -- the most regressive tax in America because it applies to 100% of the earnings of almost every worker in America.

Meanwhile, they locked in very attractive inheritance, dividend, and capital gains tax rates for themselves. And made permanent the 39 1/2% marginal rate they will pay.

Social Security is next. And Medicare.

Oh, we will get a bone that the Republicans will portray as Marie Antoinette going to the guillotine. They will scream and fight until the last possible second before relenting.

And that bone will cost Grandma serious dollars. If not her very life.

Re: "Tax Deal Shows Possible Path Around House G.O.P. in Fiscal Fights to Come" (1/3/2013)